Cowboy, Take Me Away
by Chustang
Summary: Whoo! It's done... finally! Man, that was a doosie to complete. R&R as always!
1. Prologue

Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust   
----------------------------   
Prologue   


June 14.   
A lanky boy latched his eyes to the starry sky, a shiver of fear telling a thousand stories of horror and despair that could be awaiting him in that cosmic abyss. A few gentle strands of his short, bristling red hair blew in the wind, his gaze unwavering under them. He had only been fourteen for a few hours. This was the best birthday present he could ask for, the chance to chase down his dreams.   
"Gene?"   
He turned, as a wind kicked up the grass around him. In the light of the nearby spaceport, the field was an eerie bluish-white. Yet that didn't hinder the star's brilliance overhead. A man was walking over to the boy, who was sitting quietly in the field. "What are you doing out here, Gene? You should be in bed, getting rested up. It's three the morning!" he reprimanded, sitting down next to his son.   
"I couldn't sleep," he simply replied, curling his knees up to his chin and wrapping his arms around them. His newly received tattoo had been part of a Space Forces tradition, when a boy first heads into space, and the red and magenta star was worn proudly on his left shoulder. Gene stared at the ships that were being polished and equipped for launch. "Too much to think about."   
His father smiled, ruffling his red hair playfully. "Hey. Don't break your head worrying over stuff like that."   
The boy replied with a smile, his dark blue eyes alight with a curious and scared light. They seemed old beyond years with thoughts, but alive and pulsing with youth that would never die. Lips pursed happily in consideration of his father's words, Gene looked back at the stars.   
"It'll be okay. I'll teach you the ropes, everything. Maybe you'll grow up to be a legendary pilot. How would you like that?" he asked encouragingly. "Gene Starwind: Fighter pilot…" He liked the way it rolled of his lips, and the man beamed down at his flame-red haired son. "Tomorrow's the big day. How about we go in and have some of your mother's apple pie as celebration?"   
Gene smiled. "Yeah!" 

---------------------------------- 

_My image no longer is me_   
_My friends and family can no longer see_   
_That the smiles really hold tears_   
_That my dreams are just my fears___

_Tell me_   
_That I'll be_   
_Okay_   
_Just for today_   
_Tell me_   
_That she_   
_Isn't really crying_

---------------------------------- 

Gene Starwind glared at himself in the mirror. The same, roguish red hair; the same, fiery steel blue eyes; the same scars. But it wasn't him. He was a prisoner, one that roamed the streets freely but still remained locked up horribly.   
He saw… a lie.   


*************   
Author's Notes 

That poem I wrote myself, and there will usually be one in each chapter. Remember this is only a prologue, and it'll get more exciting. I'm a big believer in Gene/Melfina, even though I dislike Mel… ^_^=   
Please read and review! Email me at chustang@nativestar.net 

Chustang   



	2. Lost the Spark

Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust   
--------------------------------   
Chapter 1   
"Lost the Spark"   


June 14. Six years later.   
The boy, now grown, had foolishly engaged himself in a race. A race that was nothing more than a bloody fight over one patch of space. A scream escaped him, as the battle he was presently locked in became a single level of intensity too much. In the darkness of the abandoned warehouse, the neck-snapping punch connected to Gene's face. The man who had delt the blow just snorted, dissatisfied, and wiped the blood from his fist. "I should finish you off now, but I don't like killing children," he spat, as Gene's punished body finally collapsed. "Learn to watch that dirt you call your mouth. When you learn to be a man, find me again. I'd like to settle this feud." Enclosed in darkness, the man recovered the gun Gene had kicked away, shoved open the rusted door, which allowed the pale moonlight to flood in, and walked away.   
The roguish teenager gritted his teeth, struggling to raise himself. Blood was streaming down his disfigured face, and there was a cut across his fingers and palm that was clotted. Gene sat in silence, staring at the man as he walked away.   
"Damn it." 

----------------------------------------   
Angelene is sure that he's the cure   
He's got a kind of reckless allure   
Like a fast ride on the wild side   
So she turns her cheek when he's   
Havin' a mean streak   
And if you ask her real sweet,   
She won't look you in the eye   
And she's calling it love, ah, but there   
Is no resemblance   
It's a drive down a dead end road   
On the path of most resistance 

Exert from Angelene by Jo Dee Messina   
----------------------------------------------- 

Gene opened the door, cautious to be quiet. He was staggering from shellshock, the duel still fresh in his mind. Moonlight poured into the living room of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises, and his shadow cut that light as he walked silently in. Hopefully, he wouldn't wake anybody up. He looked at the clock on the table, its red light flashing 3:13 A.M. The Devil's hour.   
He staggered up the stairs, letting the house fall into darkness again. As he climbed to the upper level, he could hear Jim sleepily groan at him, sleeping in the bed nearest to the stairs. "Go to bed, Aniki…" he grumbled at him subconsciously, curling the blankets tighter around him. Gene smiled, and then walked stealthily past. In the top-level bedroom, he could hear Melfina sleeping quietly as well. He paused, contentedly gazing at her, and turned to find his own bed.   
With a muted yawn, the teenager stretched his cramped arms and fingers. He unlatched the caster's sheath belt, set the firearm carefully down beside the bed, and undressed. His clothes were smeared with blood, which shined a dark crimson in the moonlight from the upper story window. Gene bit his lip, disgruntled with this, and journeyed back down the stairs, with the blood-spattered clothes folded.   
"Great, now I have to do laundry," he grumbled.   
Once the bloodied clothing was being washed, Gene stumbled back upstairs, fingers lazily scratching his head through the dirty, messy red hair. He'd never been so drained before, even after being stuck in space for three days… after his dad… Gene snapped himself to reality suddenly, not wanting to remember. With eyes avoiding all the people that weren't watching, he sighed softly, sitting down in his bed. Why did he always have to remember?   
Absently, his scarred fingers reached for a picture on the bed stand. Gene lifted it, and the photograph seemed to weigh like a boulder in his hands. In the darkness, he could barely make out the grinning face of his father, hearty and youthful with black hair and a stocky body, the elegance and sweetness of his redheaded mother, who was tall and lanky with flame red hair cascading around her shoulders. And of course, their son. As he focused his anguished, tired blue eyes on the young boy he saw, he no longer could say he was there. That couldn't be him. Not a chance.   
That boy, short but smiling, wasn't Gene Starwind. Or was he not? It seemed so confusing to him. In all the pictures he owned, there was a redheaded little boy, with the same youthful blue eyes. It couldn't be him. The Gene he saw in the mirror, was, well… just a lie. The little boy had been happy, content, and loved…   
He was angry, depressed, and punished. All because of that dream… that damn foolish dream he had pursued. Gene had become this twisted mirage of himself, at his own hand. If I had only said no… then maybe, he would have stayed. Just like he promised me, for my birthday. We would have had gone to the park, finished and played with my remote boat, and he wouldn't have died. I'd still be home… Mom wouldn't be dying form worry, she wouldn't have gone crazy waiting for me… waiting for Dad, even though he couldn't possibly have returned home.   
"I'm not that boy," he whispered to himself, letting the picture settle back to the bed stand. He felt a ragged breath burn in his throat, and the hotness of tears quivered through his entire body. "I'm just a selfish little lie, who killed for a living and never returns money…" His voice trailed off with the mounting desolation and shame.   
Lying back, losing his eyes in the moonlight-tinted sky of stars, one he knew, loved, and hated so well, he just sighed and fell asleep. "I'm not anyone, anymore…"   


Melfina just lost herself, in the swirling thickness of confusion. Her light brown, energetic eyes were downcast and dark with anguish. The same question haunted her… like a lie. She lay, sweating in the unusual hotness of the bed, and wondered if anyone could ever understand what she was feeling. She wondered if Gene really had meant what he said. It wasn't like she didn't trust him. Oh no, Melfina trusted him and Jim more than anything in the world.   
Why am I laying in bed, awake? she asked herself. I'll never get to sleep…   
Just then, she heard footsteps past the dark room, cautious and gentle. Quickly, the bio-android blinked her bright brown eyes open, to gaze on who was walking past. In the moonlight-painted top-level, she instantly noticed the ruffled blaze of read hair. Gene. He was drunkenly staggered to his bed. The second thing she locked her gaze on, was his face. There was a huge bruise across his right cheek, and it was slightly red from blood.   
Oh Gene, not another fight…   
Melfina sank back into the warm depths of the pillow, her long black hair glistening in a few rays of moonlight that crept into the room. She could her a voice, sealing her eyes as the same pressing feeling of confusion swept over her. Someone please, just tell me who I am, she begged silently. As her mind began to desperately wander, she could make out the voice clearly.   
"I'm not that boy. I'm just a selfish little lie, who killed for a living and never returns money."   
Gene. What does he mean?   
"I'm not anyone, anymore…"   
  


*************   
Author's Notes 

Well, that chapter took long for being so short… ^_^; I guess that's it. I really dislike Melfina's perfect manners, but when she acts more like a teenager (like at the cemetery in the last episode) she's pretty cool. That verse is from my second favorite Jo Dee Messina song. It's very cool; you should hear it. Please read and review!   



	3. A Shade Too Black

Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust 

Chapter 2   
"A Shade Too Black" 

June 15.   
Breakfast that morning was definitely last on the list of unprecedented events, according to Jim. If there were a record for most ordinary and unexciting mealtime, this would have rocked the history books forever. As always, the sun flashed warmly at them, sleepily crawling into the arch of bluish green sky. The quiet, stilled aura of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises was only disturbed when Jim yawned, glanced tiredly around, then changed into his usual attire and went down for breakfast. As he was slipping on the sleeve of his dark blue coat, the eleven-year-old kid was brought to full attention as he heard activity in the kitchen.   
Curious, he stepped into the kitchen, as the rest of the crew began to wake up. He gently pushed open the door, just to see Melfina busy over a pot. She was humming while stirring, with writhing plumes of steaming rising around her. "Hi Jim!" she said, spotting the blonde poking his head in. "Good morning, isn't it? Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes. Where are Aisha, Suzuka, and Gene?"   
Jim brushed a few, astray strands of blonde hair from his eyes. Muting a yawn, he replied, "Still asleep, I guess." He quickly found his place back in the living room, sitting in the glow of his laptop. As his fingers slid over the keys, it snapped to life, displaying the familiar red light around their amount of money. Still in the red. He twisted his face in a grimace, before letting out a stressed sigh. "The same thing over and over again. Man…"   
While the mundane circle started again for Jim, working and waiting for cash, Gene's dark version of mundane was getting drastically more tiring. The Outlaw Star's captain groaned, as he realized he was expected to wake up and actually move. Gene blinked his steel blue eyes, eyelids heavy like lead weights over them, and they were welcomed with the golden blaze rising in the window. Pain racked his back, as he slightly moved to massage his stinging, drowsy eyes. He was sprawled out on his back, with his newly disturbed wound reddening again on his cheek. Ignoring the rising pain levels, he sat up, and was faced with the sun glaring warmly through the window.   
On the bedside table, the same haunting picture was faced in his direction, and Gene locked gazes once again with the phantoms of his lost life. With a sigh, he turned it face down.   
He stood up, cracking a few sore bones, and groggily reached for some clothes. He rarely wore anything besides his black, skin-tight shirt and black pants, but with those still bloodstained, he had no choice. Gene sleepily pulled out the drawer, and took out a pair of dark red, loose fitting jeans (no pun intended ^_^) and a loose gray muscle shirt. Once dressed, he lightly smoothed down his wild red hair, and began to sleepily trek downstairs.   
Meanwhile, Mel was totally engaged in her morning cooking. Brown eyes sealed and humming a lively, summertime tune, she picked up the steaming plates of food. In the morning sunlight streaming through the window above the stove, the plumes of steam whipped in the air. Bacon, scrambled eggs, and black coffee for Jim, toast with strawberry jam, two waffles, and orange juice for herself, an omelet with mushrooms and orange juice for Aisha, a batch of tea for Suzuka, and pancakes, bacon, and the last mountain dew from the fridge for Gene. She gently nudged the swinging door open with her hips, and walked out to the table, where a disappointed but still cheerful Jim was awaiting her, along with Aisha and Suzuka.   
"Breakfast is served!" she said happily, placing the food before the hungry crew. Mel smiled as Jim thanked her, taking a deep sample of his black coffee. Once she saw Aisha, who squealed in delight, and Suzuka were enjoying her food, the bio-android brushed her hands against her apron, and sat down to her meal. But she noticed the crew wasn't all assembled. "Gene? Are you coming?" she called, looking up toward the top level.   
"Yeah. Just a minute." The slurred, unemotional response was typical of Gene at this time, early in the morning, and it shouldn't have bothered the black haired teenager. But memory of the night before offset her concern. Perhaps he wasn't felling well. It made sense to her; he'd come in at 3 in the morning, bloodied up and nearly drunk, so she would think it might make him sick. Melfina soon saw him walking down the stairs, and still wasn't satisfied. Gene wasn't wearing his normal clothes, so she assumed they had been too bloody to wear.   
He staggered down in his sleepy fashion, sat down, gave a muted yawn, and began to eat in silence. He didn't even return the hello Jim gave him. Of course, Gene often ate in silence, if really tired, but it worried Mel even more. With her brown eyes falling downward, the girl ate in silence as well.   


Broadway is dark tonight   
A little bit weaker than you used to be   
See the young man sitting   
In the old man's bar   
Waiting for his turn to die   
Exert from Broadway by the Goo Goo Dolls   


Sunlight, deflected against the steely hulls the ships bore, playfully cascaded upon the open field, grassy spaceport. Bright and icy against the crisp blue sky, the light was cut only at the base of the ships. Shadows were saviors in themselves, as the thin teenager listlessly sighed, leaning back into the black haven they provided. Gene was sagged against the steel base of port 26, where the Outlaw Star was currently being polished and worked on by Gilliam's little blue can-machines.   
Maybe I should get back to work...   
Gene had been resting, since he had slightly strained his arms from tightening a loosened grappler arm. The muscles in his arm throbbed slightly, resentfully protesting against the punishment they had to go through. He glanced around, in the summer hotness of Locust, and took the last swig of his mountain dew. As the bottle emptied, he licked his lips. He missed Earth, and all the things and memories he'd left there. Digger, his loyal border terrier, his best friend down the road, fishing down at the creek, and the family he'd left there.   
But, no. With a jagged-edged sigh cutting his throat, he listlessly turned his gaze back to the empty bottle, watching the light catch it. I can't go back… not there. He cast his dark, cadet blue eyes downward, trying to convince his stirring emotions. Jim needs me here; they all do. Don't they?   
"They do need you, Gene."   
The roguish, almost arrogantly carried voice came like a fierce bullet, instantaneous and hard. It was a strike of anguish and content that the words gave him, yet it was suspiciously friendly. Gene whipped his gaze toward the voice. His hand clenched around the blaster, whipped it out, and he leveled it. The barrel's focus was trained on a black-dressed figure, which was also leaning against the steel base only a few feet away. Gene took a tentative step back.   
The man's entire body cloaked in a coat that seemed, well… a shade too black. He could only see a bit of dirty, tanned skin beneath the black cowboy hat, and a slight glint of dark blue eyes as the man gave a hearty laugh at his fear, one that seriously ticked him off. It seemed too cocky, like he was some lab rat he could control.   
"Who the hell are you?" Gene hissed at him, locking the gun. His cold gaze was trained on the dark figure, which faded to silence. Still leaning against the steel, the guy causally stuck his hands into the pocket. As the sun lighted his flesh, he caught the faint reminiscences of scars across the man's hands. Scars? This just caused his suspicion to burn harder. "Tell me. Else-" Gene tilted the gun's barrel in his direction, voice losing some of its brash spark. "- I shoot you in the gut, instead of between your eyes."   
The man didn't answer. He slightly turned, just to face the angry outlaw. Beneath the concealing rim of the cowboy hat, those fiery blue eyes seemed ghostly familiar, with a dark flurry of thin hairs brushing in front of them. Gene focused on the hair, which was a hauntingly familiar dark… almost red…   
"Still the same," the man said, the gruff satisfaction with a roguish tint to it. His dark blue eyes flickered to the leveled gun, one still icily trained on him, and an impish grin escaped him. "I guess I really didn't realize, back then."   
"Realize what?" he spat back, through gritted teeth. In the shadow of the Outlaw Star, he couldn't make out the man's clear facial features, as he backed away and slightly lifted his hat rim.   
"Touchy, aren't we, Gene?"   
The causal reply was instantly shot down by a fiery glare from the redheaded teenager. Gene cruelly locked his fingers around the trigger, slowly applying pressure as his rage began to build. An undeniable hunger to kill this man became too much for him. There was just something dangerous in those eyes; something that just seemed too familiar. It was a threat.   
"Shut up."   
Gene aimed, and tightened the trigger.   
But his target wasn't there. In a flash of speed, he felt the gun whipped from his grasp and the bullet he fired by reaction just struck air, disappearing into the blue sky. The man once finished kicking the gun away, recovered himself and quickly gave a swift punch, which despite Gene dodging it, still grazed his jaw, sending pain like needles up his face and throwing him to the ground. Dust fumed as he hit the ground, and he barely blinked before he could feel another staggering blow to the jaw.   
While still in the intense first few moments of pain, before it died down, he felt the man roughly grab him by the shirt collar, as if Gene was no more than a broken rag doll, and pin him against the steel base of port 26.   
"Now," he hissed, dark blue eyes gleaming beneath the black cowboy hat. "If you'd cooperate, I'd like to kill you."   


***********   
Author's notes 

Oooh… doesn't everybody just love cliffhangers! Please read and review! If I can get 15 reviews by chapter 5, I'll get a sequel going for this. ^_^=   



	4. Hidden Scars

Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust 

Chapter 3   
"Hidden Scars"   


June 15.   
The rain came like a hint of sympathy.   
Water streamed down of the steel roof, echoing a sadly eerie ring through the house. The rain poured relentlessly over the edge of the roof, like a waterfall. Sighing, Gene leaned back and watched the moonlight glitter once caught in the rain. He gazed at the night sky through the gaps in the waterfall, flecked with the stars. Dark cadet blue eyes sullen with pain, he leaned back against the bed's headrest and gave a quick glance at the clock. 7:15   
Aisha and Suzuka had hit the town for the night, deciding to get time to themselves. And so it was solemnly quiet in the whole of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises. There was a faint gold glow from a light emitting from downstairs, casting against the back of Gene's wild red hair. He could hear them talking softly, almost worriedly. First Melfina's, soft and sweet like a summer breeze, and Jim's answering one, childish and concerned. Despite the slurred and muted quality of their words, he knew what they were talking about. He settled more against the headrest, giving a listless sigh, which came with a familiar roughness. Ever since that afternoon, when… it had happened, he was beginning to drift away from himself. Almost as if he was being erased.   
With every breath, there came a painful echo, like another set of lungs were trying to control his from the inside. It spiked now muted pain into his entire body, for seemed like eternity before it would fade away. But it was relentless in this pattern; hit, fade, and hit painfully again a few minutes later with rising pain levels.   
Gene closed his eyes, which had begun to alarmingly lighten to white, and tried to compensate the blurring emotions and memories. His hand lazily brushed against a fresh wound as he folded his arms across his chest. It stung at contact, although he had taken out the bullet long ago. A bullet he knew had pierced his heart. 

-----------------------------------------------   
_Hey, Mr. Hero_   
_ Walking a thin, fine line_   
_ Under the microscope of life_   
_ Remember your roots, my friend_   
_ They're right down below_   
_ 'Cause heroes come and heroes go_   
  
_Exert from_ Are You Ready_ by Creed_   
----------------------------------------------- 

Melfina was burdened immensely by the mystery of her identity enough, but fate had more tests of faith in store for the confused soul. It was like she had become a doll for destiny to toy with, cruel and misunderstanding. With tired eyes, she relaxed against the blanket Gene had thrown on the sofa. She sank back into the thick, dark blue quilt, which was still warm, and lifted her gaze up to the table beside the couch. Jim was busy lining up a few, small-yield jobs on the phone, talking softly.   
Deeply immersed in thought, she settled back even further, draping the quilt across her neck. Once she had become comfortable, she gave a content sigh. Yet she knew it was a lie. There were so many things rushing through her head, each more and more pressing and urgent. Melfina closed her liquid brown eyes, shutting out the sleepy gold light from the lamp nearby, and began to reflect on her problems.   
She took a deep breath, and the air and smell not only brought a cool relief into her body, but it… reminded her.   
The bio android gave a content smile to herself. Gene.   
An angelic warmth pulsed through her body at the thought. Inhaling deeply, she could smell him and feel the warmness he had left behind in the blanket. It wasn't like his scars; the image the smell conjured in her mind. What she could see beyond the scarred and rebellious teenager was at the same time comforting, and terrifying. She had seen his vulnerability from the very beginning; she remembered the flight in space. She remembered watching him, as he lay, unconscious, in the chair on the dark-lit Horace. It was nice to know she wasn't alone in her weakness… but it seemed too much to lay in, too much weakness for Gene to handle.   
He's still up in bed, isn't he? Oh I wish I knew what was wrong… what if it's me…?   
"Hey Mel, whatcha thinking about?" Jim's genuinely curiously blue eyes were highlighted against the mechanical black of his working goggles, which tilted at a slant across his forehead, and his lit blonde hair. Although soft, his sudden words seemed like a blast of sound, compared to the previous silence. She could see his lips slightly twisted in concern, as he pushed his rolling chair back to face her more. He tilted his head, gazing at her inquisitively. "You seem really worried about something."   
"Oh… it's okay Jim. It's really nothing to worry about," she reassured weakly, with her eyes casting downward. She could feel an awkward hotness in her face.   
"Hmm," he mumbled to himself. Just about discouraged from probing more, the young mechanic didn't reply. His eyes seemed to consider, and he turned to the computer again, with the light glistening on the metallic goggles. Melfina settled back into the silence and quilt again, nearly falling asleep, when Jim's voice struck up again.   
"Is it about Gene?" His eyes met hers, with a smiling tint to them.   
Melfina could feel the hotness in her face again, and she quickly tried to resist blushing. With her hand against her cheek, fiddling with the strands of ebony hair that hung there, she gave a nod. "I just was… worried about him," she softly said, lifting her eyes to the top level, watching the still silhouette of the outlaw. "When he came home, he didn't look at all good."   
"What do you mean, Mel?" Jim seemed almost afraid, his cute blue eyes widening.   
"Well… he came home pretty early for being Friday. It was like he was just a ghost of himself. He didn't want to eat or even talk. Gene just went up to bed, and he's been there ever since." Her liquid brown eyes slanted downward, glistening with tears. "I think he might be sick, but he won't talk to me." Jim could clearly see the sincere concern in her eyes, as they grew blurred.   
With a rueful smile, the blonde silently sat down beside Melfina. He gently grasped her hands, trying to reassure her. "It's okay Mel. Don't feel bad about it. Gene hardly ever gets more than a sneeze. He'll be fine," he said, smiling as she looked up and returned a slight tilt of her lips.   
"Yes, I know," she said, "But's not like that."   
Puzzled, Jim gave her a surprised look. "What?"   
"He was breathing strangely, like he had two sets of lungs, both trying to breath at different times. And his eyes were almost white," she explained, clasping her other hand around Jim's in worry.   
"Like he was dying…" 

* * * * *

The window dripped, its jagged edges opening to the dark sky, with rain. Glass was scattered like a maniacal piece of art, bred and created by anger and angst. Every shred of the broken window glinted in the moonlight's icy glare, flashing. The top-level room echoed with emptiness, and flowing tears. Amongst the flood of rain, there was the faint reminisce of blood across the floor and on the jagged edges. Melfina couldn't even breathe, with her heart caught fearfully in her neck. Jim gave only silence, looking painfully away. _Damn it, Aniki._   
The picture, broken and wet, lay on the floor.   
Gene was gone. And in more ways than one.   
  


*************   
Author's Notes 

I hope you guys like cliffhangers; cuz there'll be a lot of them. ^_^ Just to let you know, the last part was when Jim and Mel went up to check up on Gene. I'll probably be adding a lot of chapters because I'm on spring break. Please R&R! 

Chustang   



	5. Crash and Burn

Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust   


* * *

  
Chapter 4   
"Crash and Burn"   


June 15.   
Smoke lifted into the dark air, touched by a hint of roses on the wind. Memories were burning in his mind, as the wind ruffled through the flame-red hair, letting the strands whip freely. Pain as well. Leaning against the dark building corner, he took a deep, raggedly drawn breath to clear his ravaged mind of all thought. He just wanted peace. In the cold cruelty of the rain, he found a certain freedom. The Sentinel III streets were empty and silent before him.   
The man's dark blue eyes were sullen and dull beneath his red hair, and he listlessly blew a few strands from his face. On the wind, he could hear the thunder building and breaking in the dark storm clouds forming. Yet he could hear the voice again, the voice of his killer, echoing again and again in his mind. The sound of the gunshot. The pain. He didn't want to remember, but he knew it was hopeless to resist.   
Gene Starwind, the broken outlaw, felt his feet move beyond his control. In the dark of the rain, he didn't care what was happening to him, or how something was controlling the movement. He didn't care he was heading back to home, a place he'd really never had, or that he was holding the caster. He didn't care the internal killing drive the force gave him.   
He just didn't give a damn anymore. 

* * *

  
Smoke in the Thunder   
Driftin' on a late summer wind   
Like a breath of Perfection,   
It'll never be back again.   
You can't go back for the things you left behind   
The emotions are all in your mind 

* * *

  
He couldn't deny what had happened. Gene couldn't turn back time, no matter how loud or angry his words were, no matter how hard he tried. Again, as he sank into a drone, listlessly walking down empty streets, they came back. The remembrances. 

_"Now. If you'd cooperate, I'd like to kill you."_   
_ It only took a second for the darkly cloaked stranger to whip a bronze flash from his side and focus the object on him, jabbing Gene's chin upward until his strained neck began to throb in pain. The outlaw took a double take, eyes intensely surprised. Because, with a few licks of dried blood like scars across its barrel, was his own caster. It's small knife like thing (I don't know what to call it ^_^;;) cut at his chin, and the blood shined in the hot summer sun. The man had him pressed against the steel base like he weighed no more than a doll, and was pinching him against it with only one hand against the base of his neck._   
_ The man's fierce blue eyes seemed to crookedly smile, with that recognizable steely flavor to them. He slightly tilted up his cowboy hat, still clutching the impossibly real caster. "Despite what it might seem like, death isn't all that bad you know, Gene," he said silkily, his breath hot on his skin._   
_ Gene, still panting heavily, just gave him a short-winded reply. "How do you know my name?" he weakly demanded, clenching his hands into fists in pain at his sides. "And how could you have a caster like that? Mine is one of a kind."_   
_ "Well, let's just say… you know me and I know you. Besides," he said, giving a smile through his steel blue eyes, "it's really your gun, as well as mine."_   
_ Gene narrowed angry eyes at the insolence he had received, especially from such an annoyingly haughty person. While still pained, he maintained his fire and spat back an insolent little spark himself. "You're a liar, just a two-faced jerk who doesn't know when he's behind," the outlaw said, suddenly jerking his fist at the tanned face he could see beneath the cowboy hat. It connected strongly, and the infuriated grunt Gene gave droned out his foe's yell of surprise. But the success he achieved came with one price._   
_ The caster fired._   
_ A hit._   
_ He dropped._   
_ A laugh._   
_ There was only the blazing fire of incessant pain in his chest, as he blinked to find death and a mirror staring back at him, only through eyes so totally different and identical to his. Gene was looking up at the black-coated stranger, who had a strange vial in his scarred hands. Yet he didn't realize just what it ment, seeing who he did in that man's face. It was impossible… The blue eyes gazing down at him, as he lay, dying on the ground, were angry, pained, and apologetic at the same time._   
_ "I'm sorry to do this, but I have no choice Gene. I can't let the Pirates down, or let fate have its way. Only if you die, will everything work out in my time," he breathed, eyes bizarrely watery. He lifted his hand up against the ocean blue sky, revealing a vibrant green vial with a small needle in the cork, which was glowing ominously. "It's really for the best, what I'm doing now. But I have you kill you."_   
_ The man gave no more emotion, as he pinned the outlaw down coldly by kicking him, and plunged the needle straight into his main throat vein. Instantly, a fiery pain began course his blood like a poison snake, slashing endlessly at every weak spot in his body. He could feel the poison begin to cloud in his head, like a venomous storm gathering to strike. Gene suddenly felt a force seemingly grab his mind and wrench it to its control. Yet, it couldn't seem to control him completely._   
_ Gene blindly pushed the man away, pulling the needle from his vein as it injected the poison. Flickering his slurring vision at the vial, he saw it was more than half empty in his hand. The outlaw gave a shuddering wheeze as he smashed the vial in his fist, and groggily flung it away. He shut his eyes, not wanting to hear what came next. Pain like blades slashed at his heart._   
_ Above him the gun clicked and locked._   
_ He knew what was coming._   
  
  
Jim Hawking no longer held a spark, an internal drive to lift his life up. It was like his motor of life had just sputtered and died beneath him, without a warning. Ironic, looking at that picture, everything else sputtered and died around him now. As if there was anything really to die anyway – things had been going downhill fine on their own, thank you very much. And the fact that he was holding the key to his aniki's broken past didn't make the situation better.   
Running his finger across the broken glass, Jim could feel confused eyes turning to the photo for answers. The young outlaw leaned back against the door, with the glare of the street lamps streaming in the nearby window through the blinds. Midnight was his perfect time to think. It was too early for the hassle of a drunk Gene, too late for Suzuka, and Aisha would be too busy dreaming about owning the Leyline to bother to do anything else besides grab a midnight snack. But Melfina was quite another story.   
Those amber brown eyes could never be closed to a person outside her room. It seemed to Jim, seeing how each time he retreated to think, or was up late working, she came to him, that she was awake herself. And this particular, rainy and stormy night didn't restrain her from doing so.   
Mel, with her ebony hair glistening in the glare, sauntered silently from the kitchen. In her slender fingers, she clutched a glass of ice tea. The android didn't get a welcoming upward glance as she approached, liquid brown eyes falling downward in bit of discouragement. "Jim?" she softly asked, taking her place beside the blonde, whose marble blue eyes were jammed in the depths of the photo. Melfina slid her arm around his neck, drawing his head to her shoulder. "I thought you might be thirsty, thinking like this, so I brought you something to drink."   
The disheveled mop of blonde hair looked up to her with grateful blue eyes, and Jim's lips lifted heavily in a sad smile. "Thanks Mel," he said quietly, accepting the glass, letting the picture lie in his lap. He limply held it, but took no move to drink. Jim let his darkened blue eyes cast downward to look gazes with the picture again.   
"What's the matter?" she asked, finally recognizing the youthful and smiling faces preserved for all time in that picture. The android tentatively tilted the picture to face her, and her liquid brown eyes widened, seeing the face of an eleven-year-old Gene. "What… Jim? Where'd you get this?" she whispered anxiously, mind clouding with even more confusion. It just didn't click in her mind, everything happening now.   
"It's Aniki's." His voice iced coldly, and his fingers tightened around the splintering frame, worn with years. Fury began to bloom in his bright eyes, narrowing. "It's lying bastard Aniki's"   
  


**************   
Author's Notes 

Come on people! Please review! The review bucket has been empty for a while and I feel like kicking it. Are you alive out there? The poem is mine, but I have this voice in the back of my head saying there's already a song called Smoke in the Thunder. Hmm. I really must be going crazy… Well, bubbye! 

Chustang   



	6. A Gun, The Dream, and a Challenge to Sea...

cowboysix Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust   
  
Chapter 5 – Part A   
"A Gun, the Dream, and a Challenge to Seal the Deal"   


June 15, on the planet of Angel, five years in the future.   
It was dark by the time she saw Diamonic on the glowing, crimson horizon, and, true to its name, glittering like a diamond with its lights. Its light was greedily consumed by the dark, blood red sky, with a hint of a silver moon staring through the haze. The empty, forbiddingly quiet roads suddenly began to fill with an engine's roar, and the primitive tar road flashed with headlights. A sleek, classic red car hovered nosily down the abandoned road, its aging motor grumbling in bitter protest.   
The driver, subdued by the silence and pressure on her mind, had her cold gaze transfixed on the city. Its reflection shined in the misty brown of her eyes, as she slammed down on the acceleration. The girl, the youthful and thin age of sixteen, had traveled down this haunting road for years on end, coming to visit the treasure she loved and had helped imprison. Her eyes narrowed, with the lights of Diamonic flooding over her.   
As the grungy city blurred past her, still brilliant against the star-freckled sky, the girl turned her stolen car down a dark alley. No one bothered to notice. Of course, in a Kei Pirate city like this one, everyone was under the same rule. If there was a crime, no one reported it to a Pirate higher than them because it was just likely to get an annoyed look and your head in your lap. With her long, purple hair whipping in delicate strands, she jumped out of the car, landing her sneakers in the usual grime of Diamonic. She only hesitated for a moment at the darkness, and then found the dim light framing the door leading to the Kei cells.   
She had a few questions for the Outlaw, and some flowers for her favorite little prodigy.   
And left Ehefrau waiting in the dark. 

  
It's all I know   
To bring me back into your arms   
Your distant sun   
Your shining light   
You'll be my dark star shining   
Tonight 

I've been the lowest of the low on the planet   
I've been a sinner all my days   
And I was living with my hand on the trigger   
I had no sense to change my ways 

Exert from This Cowboy Song by Sting   
  
The icy clank of the reinforced steel bars echoed in the darkness of Shared-Cell 12, and instantly, her eyes detected someone bolting up in surprise. A grin curled her lips, and she slid the door open and close behind her as she silently walked in. Familiar eyes. Blue in the blackness of the otherwise empty prison, yet totally different in perspective. The owner of the blue eyes she had come to see held confusion, pain, and underlying genius that had been labored to the point of insanity. Those eyes blinked hopefully, and then he spoke up. "Hamyou? Is that you?" Two gloved hands wrapped around the bars of the cell besides the one she'd entered.   
"Jim!" the girl replied, rushing to grasp the cold hands. "I'm sorry I'm late to see you today. There was a lot of ruckus going on about you and Gene so I stayed at the barracks and listened for a while." She gave a smile, seeing the sixteen-year-old Jim again. His blonde hair was cut short, spiked and messy from living in his home cell and he no longer had the childish look but that of a late nineties teenager, with his old jacket still around his shoulders.   
"Ruckus? About what?" he asked, suddenly curious. Hamyou felt his hands tighten around hers in tension. "Gene and I have been here all day."   
Heaving a sigh, she shook her head softly. She tried to rub his hands warm, as they were ice cold, and replied with a depressed tone. "They must have brainwashed you again today, Jim. You poor thing."   
Jim blinked his blue eyes in surprise, face lit by the moonlight streaming in from the barred window casting a shadowed map of light over his crude living quarters. There was a cot behind him, next to a sink and toilet, and a table cluttered with computers and papers in the corner. "Brainwashed? They did that again? I thought they said I had nothing else important to forget," Jim said quietly, staring straight into Hamyou's brown eyes.   
"You didn't, Jim. They just brainwashed today. Until then, you didn't know that Gene was going back, and they didn't want to freak when you figured out he was free for a day," the Anten member explained, brushing back a flap in her light lavender dress and pulling a daisy from her pocket. "Here. Anyway, I know how hard it is for you, so I thought you might want to look at something beautiful in this horrible city."   
Through the layers of darkness, she saw him smile. "I already am," he said simply, sliding his hands further through the bars. With flower in hand, Jim gave Hamyou a kiss on the cheek in thanks. "And about Gene going back somewhere?"   
"Well, I can't really tell you," she whispered sympathetically, averting her misty brown eyes to scan the open cell she was in. It was much longer and narrower than Jim's but opened out into a small space about six feet around at the wall. Gene's cell. "I was hoping your Aniki was ready to explain to me just what happened. You can't blame me; Kei Pirate gossip isn't the most accurate."   
"Gene's asleep," Jim answered, but there was caution lingering in his voice. "He's been acting weird lately, and hasn't said a word for hours. I just assumed he got beat again for losing a bounty. Hazanko does give him the hardest criminals he can find."   
"Thanks," the girl breathed, giving Jim a returning kiss. Her purple hair, which was cut and held in the same style as five years ago glistened in the moonlight as she turned painfully away from her prodigy. Hamyou glanced around, and then settled her gaze on the cot, which was up against the far wall. It revealed the outlaw lying, sprawled, out on the bed. On the corner of the cot, a black cowboy hat hung.   
The shock of seeing that flame red hair, worn and flashed like a rare prize, never quite faded, even after years of seeing him. But now, that sharp red it had held before seemed to be nullified with stressful years. Gene lay, still donning his black shirt and pants, with glazed eyes staring out the window into the starless sky overhead Diamonic. He turned his steel blue eyes to her, sighed, and then painfully sat up. "Hey, Hamyou. It's just you." His voice was slurred with lack of peace, sleep, and freedom. Dead, almost. The scars across his face were smeared with blood. "Jim's been waiting for you."   
"I know. I've already talked to him," she replied softly, brown eyes bright from the moonlight as she walked up to him. Coldness wavered in her voice, as she tried to regain her Pirate air. As much as she was acquainted with him, the guild still kept a close eye on her interactions with Gene and Jim. She couldn't let the cold pirate in her fade away. "I mostly came to ask you a few questions, if you'd be smart enough to answer."   
He blinked, then turned a fiercely questioning gaze toward his younger bounty-hunting partner. When Jim just gave a mutely unknowing look back, Gene gave a sigh, stretching his cramped legs over the edge of the cot before looking up to Hamyou. His eyes were reverted back to the same old badass attitude as he said, "Hmm. That's strange. What would a convicted bounty hunter have that you would want to know?" With an arrogant smile, he lifted his eyebrows at her. "Maybe you'd be interested to watch a duel? It'll be Pg-13, I promise you that."   
Hamyou gave a laughing smile, but only smugly. The girl folded her arms and her voice dripped with friendly sarcasm. "Still quite the lady's comedian. But I don't have time to be mocked just because I'm only sixteen. I came so you would set the story set for me."   
The outlaw had found it more comfortable to relax during Hamyou's conversations, because she tended to be hotheaded just like him in an argument. But now it was different. If he was too free-voiced against her, it might cost him his life. In a Kei Pirate city, there was almost a prejudiced sense to the streets. Captured and slave outlaws, aliens, and anyone outside the Kei guild were looked on as trash, filth they allowed to live just because they did their dirty work.   
He slightly yawned, then asked innocently, "What story?"   
"Don't give me any crap." Her teeth gritted down on her reply, turning it into a hiss. Her dark brown eyes flamed at his insolence. The prejudice at outlaws had been bred into her blood, being born a pirate, so her temper often boiled at his replies. "I would like to know how you pulled off going back in time and implanting the control venom and revive while still allowing your younger self keep his own conscious mind."   
The threat didn't even scratch Gene's ego or pride, as he studied her for a moment's silence then gave a snort. He brushed his fingers through the tossed red hair, and leaned back to sigh. "Seems you know more than you should, little girl," he warned. "Digging into Emperor business could get you demoted down to my level." His eyes flashed open in a straight glare aimed at her. They were dangerously steely blue against his red hair.   
"It wasn't me. Gossip can get into anything if you ask the right questions. But it isn't always the best way. I just thought - "   
"That you would ask the dirty criminal who did it?"   
Hamyou slightly turned her gaze away truthfully. It wasn't a secret she had an internal rivalry with Gene, but didn't see Jim as a criminal or outlaw because his Aniki had been the real bounty hunter. And with Jim watching, she just couldn't lie. "Well, I guess…"   
With a sigh, the outlaw finally dropped the heat between them. "Alright," he said reluctantly. "So you want to hear a bedtime story? Well hell, this isn't one." 

* * * * *

I'm not the best damn storyteller, just to tell you. I just know what happened to me, why it happened, and what I remember might not be the nicest. If I sound like a veteran to you, its just because I've had practice telling my story to Jim a thousand times over, just so he won't forget the days before… so he won't be those Pirate bastards' slave. A boy has the right to know where he came from, and androids too. In fact, it was that android and that ship that started this hellish and once heavenly game.   
To the plot, I was betrayed by my own reputation, my old girl, and of course, my greatest enemies. But I'd better get started.   
After we docked the Outlaw Star at Symkas Five, and Jim had made me go out with Melfina, I found a little, but jam-packed with the usual choke. You know, that motley little Tuesday crowd. There was a group of gothic-looking girls in the corner, drinking down their darkness, a few crazy, sugar-powered teenagers laughing their annoying little guts out, the occasional dumped person, and even a glazed looking guy smashing open hundreds of weird fortune cookies. I ordered a drink, and tended to Melfina's hunger before I finished the perky little drink, and headed outside to stand on the balcony. Away from everybody else.   
I even wanted to be away from Melfina. And as I look back, I knew it was too damn good to be right. To be real, or even possible. I should of run straight back, swept her off her feet, and gave her my emotions on a plate. She was beautiful, soothing, and never looked away when she saw my weakness. But she was hunted. And that's how I lost her. That's why I let go on purpose.   
On that balcony, you could see the park in the fading light. The whole place was gold and red, as the fake sunlight slowly began to shift to night. And of course, I saw you, Hamyou, and Jim playing with a pair of black and white cats. I smiled, 'cuz Jim had just asked me for some girl advice a few hours ago. Apparently, he didn't need any. Or still does. After a while, I got hungry again and went back inside to get something to eat. It was still dark and the same crazy crowd was there, but now, someone had pulled out an old-fashioned cd player and started to play it loud. Aerosmith. My favorite classic band. And a song to fit the night: Jaded.   
Melfina was sitting at the bar, silently watching the open, dusty dance floor slowly attract a few teenagers to come out. I couldn't help but smile again, just because she looked so beautiful looking like that. Suddenly, as I walked back up to her, she turned to me and said happily, "Oh, welcome back!"   
"Hey, Mel. Did you finish your food?" I asked, sitting down beside her at the bar.   
"Yeah," she replied, brushing some hair from her face. She smiled at me for no real reason. And of course, I returned it. Damn. She really did like me back then.   
I leaned back, then paid the bill, which lay beside her empty glass and plate. She was totally fascinated by the music, dim lighting, and people dancing and having a good time. I said, catching her off guard, "Do you like music? This song's from fifty years ago, you know."   
"Oh, of course." Her reply was high-spirited, and I could see her eyes smiling as well. "But… I don't know about dancing. I really don't know how to…"   
"Sure you do, Melfina," I reassured her, putting my hand on her shoulder. Surprised, she blushed and her eyes darted from my hand to me, uncertain. But she took my words into consideration and suddenly reached her hand up to mine.   
"Um, Gene?" she asked shyly, averting her brown eyes from me. I could feel her hand tightening slightly around mine, strangely soft and warm.   
"Yeah, Mel?"   
"I was wondering, if I said I - "   
And I knew what her last words would have been to me, too. Melfina would have said, 'I love you' I was damn sure of it. And I did her, too. How could I not love the girl who had saved my life? They just… came a day too late. If she had just said it the night before, I wouldn't have gone out to the bar with her. Maybe I would have at least notice the piercing purple eyes watching me sullenly from the corner, getting angrier with every step I took towards Mel.   
Suddenly, there was a blurring green, purple, and black flash that roared up from the table nearby and smashed into the bar, knocking over Melfina's chair and quickly grabbing her up. She shrieked in fear, and as I was to see, pain. I jumped to my feet to knock the person away, but an angry lash welted me across the neck and I could feel blood coursing down my chest and foaming in my mouth.   
Harry McDougall had Melfina snatched up tightly, with a knife jabbed into her shoulder and a gun threateningly trained to her head. The maniac gave a mean, insanely wicked smile and growled silkily, "Why, isn't this quite the unexpected pleasure, Gene."   
"You bastard!" I screamed at him, whipping out my blaster to blow his guts to hell if I had too. There wasn't any time for the usual bitter greetings. The salty and bitter sting of blood gushed in my neck and mouth. I aimed at Harry as quick as I could without hitting Melfina, but he noticed it and, with a sickening smile, raised her head and chest over his. So I couldn't kill him without going through Melfina first.   
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I thought you'd be glad to see your hated enemy," he said, tightening his arm around the bio android's neck and waist. The knife he had stabbed into her shoulder was pulsing with blood, and she was shaking with fear, brown eyes locked on me. Harry's eyes glanced around at the paralyzed, silent crowd around us, then smirked at me again. "I'd recommend you step down, Starwind. I won and Melfina is mine, so just forget her. Dead men don't see, remember?"   
I locked the gun, leveled it, but didn't fire at him. It would just cause pain, because I couldn't shoot at any weak points, and cut down on my limited ammunition supply. "You're not getting the Outlaw Star if that's what you after, jerk. Without your brother, you're nothing to me. Back off now and I won't have to kill you," I warned, but it fell on deaf ears.   
"But I'm not alone, even though you killed Ron." His voice seemed too innocent, nonchalant, and he shrugged, ripping the knife out of Melfina's dislocated shoulder. She screamed in pain, as the blade had hit bone. Blood glistened on its cruel edge, and he lifted to his temple in an insolent gesture. "If you haven't noticed, I'm a pirate now."   
And he did the unexpected, just like I knew him to.   
The knife went to Melfina's throat.   
"Move," he cautioned, "and I silt."   


Author's Notes   
****************** 

Well, since you guys were asking for a new chapter quick, I decided to cut this one short. Jim's anger and what Gene does will be explained in Chapter Six. But for part a and b, it'll be in the future. Another yummy little cliffhanger, isn't it? And since you guys got 15 reviews in the bucket, looks like I'll have to get a sequel going. 

Chustang   



	7. The Last Day

Cowboy, Take Me Away - Chapter 5B Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust   
  
Chapter 5 – Part B   
"The Last Day"   


June 15, on the planet of Angel, five years in the future.   
(Gene's story continued)   
  
Harry never would have actually done it, as long as I wasn't there. He hated me more than Hell could have ever imagine. And I could see it. A dark, bitterly wrathful grimace added onto his list of angry features, and a rage caused him to bring the knife dangerously close to Melfina's throat. Her eyes were large with fear, pleading weakly to me like I was her only friend. She was losing blood, and she slowly began to fade into unconsciousness. Melfina was crying to me. And I couldn't answer.   
A horrible smile came across his face and Harry said icily, in a greedy tone, "I told you she was mine Gene, but you didn't believe me. Just look, Gene. She's here in my arms, and there's nothing you can do about it." Those purple eyes spat triumphant fire at me.   
I didn't know what to do. A cold sweep came over me at Harry. "What if I - " I lifted a leg like I was ready to take that step forward. "- took a step? Would you really kill Mel?"   
I thought he loved her enough not to do it.   
Tears suddenly blurred in the depths of her liquid brown eyes, and her anguished expression bundled up in hurt. She must have thought I hated her. Melfina fearfully bit her lip until a thin red line traced down her chin like she was an unfinished puppet. And in a way, she was an unfinished puppet. Unfinished because of no past and an unsure future; a puppet because of the twisted mess that was her past. She lipped something to me, and then struggled tiredly against Harry's hold, unknowingly kicking the forgotten gun away.   
He frowned angrily, and then it pressed against her skin. "Do you want to see?" And in a jerk, he did it. Without hesitation. Harry McDougall actually had slit Melfina's throat.   
Instantly, she gave a scream, which was muddled by the blood. Melfina fell away heavily from her captor with trembling hands clutched around her throat. As she limply collapsed, the android gave one last, anguished sob before her hands fell away in unconsciousness, letting her life flow away with every heartbeat. Her brown eyes struggled to smile at me one last time before she gave up.   
At that point, I would have killed anybody who dared to even breath too loudly. I just took the gun, which had 10 bullets loaded, and emptied each one into him. Harry blinked, with pain mounting in the five I'd gotten in his shoulders and chest, and the others that had gone towards his ankles and legs. He gave me a look, like I should have felt pity for him as he died. I gave none.   
And the android died beside Melfina, just like he probably wanted. 

  
Melfina's blood still, despite the crude bandage, flowed down my back, as she hung over my shoulder. With her as a burden, it was getting harder to dodge all the shots coming from Harry's backup ambush. After jumping out the window of the bar, as an unnoticed assassin in the corner had pressed attack after I killed Harry, it was answered with angry blasts from the park trees. Now, exhaustedly hiding behind the nearest boulder, I could feel the bitter whir grazing against the stone, closer and closer to hitting flesh. I'd already gotten nailed once in the leg, and a grazing bullet had sliced up my left ear and burned some of my hair, destroying the earring transmitter. So I had no way to contact Jim.   
And to make things doubly worse, I had an empty gun, and no caster shells. And a dying girl to take care of.   
"Dammit!" I cursed under my breath, as a strong barrage of shots began to crack the rock. I could feet the heat from them emanating through the stone. I was ready to run for it, into the trees a few meters off across a cobblestone path, when that horrible click echoed in my ear.   
"I finally found you, Gene Starwind." The sweet voice, seeming belonging to a kid, seemed to ice my blood. It wasn't happy or sincere; it was malicious and cold. And, as you probably know, I turned to see whom else? Hamyou. The cute little Pirate girl.   
With almost manical eyes, she locked the gun in my ear and tightened the trigger. She gave a cold smile, before saying, "This was easier than expected."   
And like the fool I was, I actually thought I was through. Can you blame me? And now, looking back, its really kind of ironic. A little girl not even Jim's age killing the great Starwind bounty hunter with a single shot. A little girl that had snuck up on me like I was a drunk who hadn't sobered up for weeks; damn easily. I should have known better. Life wasn't done toying with me.   
"Hey Hamyou! Can't you wait up? What's wron-"   
Caught red-handed, I saw Jim stare limply at his date, give a blink, and let the bouquet of pink roses crash to the ground. "H-Hamyou? G-Gene?" He stuttered uncontrollably and I could see him beginning to panic, as he saw Mel. "Oh my God! Melfina!" Jim apparently had forgotten all about his date holding a gun and when he rushed over to help Mel and me, the barrel came down, trained on him. The gun jabbed at him between the eyes in a warning gesture.   
"Hamyou? What the hell are you doing?!" he shrieked, as she grabbed him by the shirt collar and dragged him closer to the barrel. Jim gave a frantic roll of his eyes once Hamyou had lifted him clear off the ground, gulping nervously. But, as usual, Jim wasn't the one to lose his level head for more than an minute. He wrapped his hands around hers, slowly trying to ease the gun away from him with out provoking her to shoot. "Come on, b-be reasonable…"   
It was all down hill from there.   
She smiled thoughtfully, tilting her head as she stared at him. Her lips pursed over a grin and she set him down. The pirate girl purred, "I guess you're right. Reasonable." But it still didn't seem right to me. There wasn't any genuine sincerity to her answer. It was like she was insane, even. "Why shoot you? I came here for him." And she turned to me.   
They rest off that day was a complete blur to me. Everything after that went too fast to remember. That's kind of a lie, though. I've been in faster gunfights than that I still can tell you what gun I used, how long it took to kill the guy, and if I got hit, how much it damn hurt. All that I remember is the taste of blood, Jim yelling something, and the bouquet of roses getting trampled on. I just don't want to remember any of it, I guess, but I can never forget Mel. So that's why I can tell this story.   
After the blur, I found Jim crashed to his knees with the gun in his hand, a bullet wound in his left hand, and his hand computer smashed to bits on the street. I was fine, except for my leg and my ear, which was no more than shredded cartilage, (which hurts, trust me) and having a dying android on my back, and a bleeding eleven year old laughing, while in tears, on the sidewalk. And, as I looked, there were no more pirates shooting from the trees. I staggered up, shifting Melfina off my back and into my arms. "Jim? Are you okay?"   
He didn't even have to stop his laughing/crying to answer. With his bloody hand collecting up the shattered computer and pistol up into a pile of metal, he just kept looking down. "Yeah. Perfectly fine."   
"But your hand, Jim! Look at it! If you don't fix it up, you could lose it!" I warned him, taking a step instinctively forward.   
"Take Melfina to the ship." His voice was cold, and he didn't stop staring at the ground.   
I didn't believe the act he was giving me. Something was suspiciously wrong here, too suspicious. He was never silent like this; he was always looking, thinking for a way to keep out of trouble while I was constantly dragging him into it like an animal stuck on the windshield. It was pure crap, acting depressed. I'd known him to get quiet about his parents whenever a conversation came too close to the topic. I could understand; I'd lost my father to pirates. But this… this wasn't Jim, and I was afraid. "Damn Jim, quit it," I fiercely said, trying to snap him out of his crazy down-haze. "What happened to all the pirates? Where's Hamyou?"   
"The pirates got called off. Hamyou got shot." His reply came blunt and harsh, like he was fed up with my pressing questions against him. Maybe I'd pushed him too hard. And before I get on with this jagged tale, I'd like to confess… I did push Jim. Too much. And I'm sorry to Jim for dragging him into my twisted hellhole of a life and I hate myself for it. Sorry buddy.   
God, I must have been a bloody mess, both on the inside and out. That's why he wanted me to leave. Damn, he always thought, and still does, think of me first. Jim wanted me to go before I got killed, along with Melfina.   
"But Jim… come on…" I weakly tried to shake this off, before it set in like a virus. I couldn't let him go through another depression streak. I'd been five years since that; the night his parents died. "You're a mess too, Jim. Just come home and I'll make hot chocolate – your favorite, remember? – And we'll take of Mel together, sit on the couch and relax, play checkers, and I'll just be like old times -"   
As I had placed my hand on his head to give him a traditional hair-ruffle, it was shot straight back with a snap and pair of blue eyes I'd never seen before. Jim glared up at me with truly angry eyes, punching my arm back and leaning away. "Knock it off Aniki!"   
I just blinked.   
This wasn't Jim. Seriously. No matter what, neither Jim nor I had ever hit each other ever, even if I got drunk or if he got fed up with me. And as I slowly took the caster out, the fake Jim's eyes widened in fear, quickly darted to the barrel, then he narrowed them in a grin. "You have no caster shells." His voice was thick with a strange quality, and he smiled fiercely.   
I took a step back.   
Melfina began to shudder and groan in pain, clutching at her throat with one hand; the other was wrapped weakly around my arm. Blood still lay around her neck like sick jewelry, as I darted my eyes to her, and as I pushed her hair from getting stained with one hand, it came away dark crimson. I didn't know. I couldn't have known. It was impossible to know she could be shut off, becoming unable to die.   
If only.   
Jim suddenly flickered in the dying light, casting a strange tangle of shadows across an alien face, darkening the already threatening blue eyes. It wasn't the same kid lying there I knew. The very image of him seemed to sway and flicker with other colors, disorienting the human being I saw. The smile on his face flickered along with it, slowly becoming less and less human.   
"A hologram!"   
"So you figured it out, huh?" he hissed, in a gravelly voice that was being slurred by a malfunction. It uncontrollably whirred with a mechanical tone, before he waved insolently and was shut off. 

  
I found dawn glowing on the horizon as I sprinted as quickly as possibly to our temporary apartment. I found the sun glaring a red in the windows as I fumbled with the door, staring like a searchlight in my face as I discovered it jammed. With Melfina convulsing in pain and damage in my arms, it seemed like forever, as I stood panting at the stuck-fast door and wondered the track I was careening down. Mel was dying, pirates had gotten Jim, I was choking on blood and being hunted down, and, off all times, my door had to jam.   
"Dammit Aisha!" I screamed at the door, knowing she could hear me. "Open the door! Melfina's hurt badly! I mean it Aisha!"   
When silence shattered my hope, I began to feel anger swelling up. I'd gotten ticked off at her tactless and badly timed antics before, but locking me out of my own apartment pushed the limit off the edge and was like shoving me over to pass it. That Ctarl-Ctarl was going to explain her ass off. Collecting her into one arm, I slammed on the door, trying to get Suzuka to open it for me.   
"Open it now!"   
Pound. Pound.   
Silence.   
"AISHA!"   
Pound. Pound.   
More silence.   
"Suzuka!"   
Silence.   
Pure and untamed.   
Unbroken.   
Empty.   
Empty?   
"Suzu? Aisha? Are you-"   
I stopped in mid-breath at that point and my heart just about froze with it. With everything going wrong, the tears I couldn't resist cut a trail through the blood. I knew it was totally over, seeing the truth so abruptly. As the sun began to lift higher, moving the glare from the windowpanes, I saw it.   
The jagged edges of the window were smeared with blood and burdened with the spicy smell of gun smoke. Inside was a dusty mess of vaporized steel and wood. Glass was scattered at the door, and there were barely noticeable but visible claw marks across the steel, being pulled more lightly and lightly as they went down. Like someone had tried to hold onto the door… while being dragged away.   
"Oh…god no…" 

  
I need to know if you were real   
I'd hate to think that I'd been fooled again   
And as the vision fades   
I'll say I was blinded by your eyes   
I felt them burn   
  
Exert from Give You Back by Vertical Horizon   


And so, this story goes like previous; Jim, Aisha, and Suzuka were captured or lying at a gun's guilt on the floor, and my turn came soon. But not before Melfina. As I realized I could heal her in the navigation system, just as she had healed me, and still chase after the pirate scum that had my life and friends at their removal. Blood came so quickly from her, it was panicking me every time another inch of clothing was turned red.   
I ran to the Outlaw Star, stealthily hiding in the shadow it cast and glancing around its steely hull to see the pirates. If the drink hadn't gotten to my head yet, I was sure they were lying in trapping wait or were on the way at least. I didn't want to get trapped in a corner. I didn't want this to happen, that to happen, and I'd just go die if it did. Wait. I'd be dead anyway.   
The dim light brought no traces of them to me, so I couldn't wait. Running up the empty corridors lined by large cargo holds, I could hear my footsteps echoing in their steely wake. The entire spaceport was silent and wavering with the faint noise. I was beginning to dizzy up, and it took a few blinks to clear the blurring world. I could feel the space phobia coming back on strong as I passed the windows.   
I was too worried to notice. 

They were waiting for me in my own ship, the bastards. As I breathlessly climbed into the bridge, which was dark in its cold inactivity, I felt Mel restlessly toss in my arms and gasp for air, leaning against me. Her face was a pale, twisted, and just plain sick copy of her face, but with no light, no emotion, just a wrenching anguish that made her strain her closed eyes. Looking up to the overhanging computer, Gilliam didn't utter a sound.   
"Strange…" I said to myself. As I lifted the heavy metal lid, I felt a cold chill. Shivering, I tried to shake it off and ease Mel into the pod. She moaned in her sleep, her face limp and wet. "Melfina… I'm sorry…"   
"Freeze."   
The morning air had followed her, a stalking wind that chilled to the bone, and now howled into the open door. In the darkness, her eyes were a dark crimson-brown, bloodshot and angry, giving a maniacal stare beneath untamed purple hair that fell, loose, at her shoulders. Tightly clutched in her hand was a cat, a sleek, black and white one, which purred seductively under her stroke. The deranged Hamyou glared at me, letting the cat turn its glowing eyes toward me.   
"Tell me, Starwind. Are you associated with anyone by the name of Jim?"   
I gulped, collecting Mel up in my arms again and bringing her head to rest on my shoulder. Stuttering in fear of Jim, I causally slipped my hand into my pocket where my blaster lay at the ready. "Jim Hawking, yes."   
"You sniveling bastard. It's because of you, Gene, that my Jim is a prisoner of my own people. I saw him chained and put to work as a brainwashed prodigy slave for Hazanko. I came to kill you, not doom my boyfriend." Her lips curled back in a pure snarl.   
"Boyfriend?"   
Her eyes narrowed in fury, with black circles ringing them in stress. "Yes. I love Jim, and you… you who he calls Aniki in his sleep, who dares to stand as a brother and father, are the sole reason he is a slave!"   
"What? What in the hell? I don't see how it's my fault. If you love him so much, why did you let that happen?"   
"I was shot, unconscious. Jim was the one holding the gun, to let you know." Bitter hate was streaked in her voice like poison. "He cared more for you, dirty outlaw, than me. That's why I was shot and couldn't stop the pirates from imprisoning him. By the time I woke up, they had already interrogated him and were brainwashing him."   
"And you came to get, let me guess, revenge?"   
"Bingo."   
I bit my lip, feeling more blood than ever leak into my clothes. As I licked them, I realized I'd bitten it too hard and it was bleeding profusely now. I didn't care though. "How did you get in here?" I hissed back at her. "The doors lock after the crew goes in."   
Her lips lifted in a drained and tired smirk. The cat in her arms seemed to snicker in a purring voice, rubbing relentlessly against her arms in a relaxed gesture. With brilliant amber eyes halfway closed and framed by long whiskers, it looked just as mean as its master. "It was simple. I only had to keep my ears open, and the key insisted on helping us capture and kill you," she said silkily, stepping off to the side to allow a figure behind her come up.   
It was definitely a girl, that's what I first thought. In the dark, the face was familiar, but once she stepped out of Hamyou's shadow, it struck me like a bullet. The same curly, blonde haired waitress from Sentinel stood before me, but she apparently was and wasn't glad to see me. Instead of her usual uniform, she wore a black tank top, and black cargo pants, which had bulging pockets with who knows what.   
"Iris? What the hell are you doing here?" I shrieked, taking another step back. Her soft blue eyes that once were friendly froze like stone as they fell on Melfina.   
"Shut up Starwind. I'd like to kill you quick before my conscious catches up with me," she said quickly, like as if she'd been a trained assassin. Swiftly and angrily, she took a gun from the bulging pocket and loaded it without pausing, like it was just another job. "Alright." She leveled the gun. "Time to die bastard. And die quick, would ya?"   
Hamyou smiled coldly. The cat in her arms began to softly hiss at me. "Iris came to us after we raided Clyde's bar, looking for you. When she was interrogated, she was very quick to help track you down. She even insisted on killing you your self. And if your wondering how we got in, do you remember giving a certain waitress permission on the ship?"   
Damn, that was the most shocking moment of my life. Iris, my hometown, old girl was putting a gun to my head like I was a soda can to be shot off a fence! Stuttering, I nearly choked on my words. "I-iris? What's w-wrong with you?! I can't believe you! After all I did -"   
"No. You're wrong," she snapped back, lifting fiery eyes up. "After everything you took away from me, I couldn't ever love you again." The gun trained on me and her eyes never stopped flickering back from Melfina in my arms to me, with a sourly bitter frown. "Every night I'd wait at the bar for hours, hoping to see you. I never, ever knew what had happened to you. I woke up in cold sweats at night worrying. You could have been dead on the streets or bleeding to death in an alley, and I'd never know. You were always hooked up with a new girl, never me! Never! You're just a roaming slut, Gene. I watched you flirt with every girl over 18 that walked in. But not anymore.   
"It ends here."   
"Now Iris, wait a minute!" I said hastily, totally helpless. I couldn't use the castor, because my supply of shells was dead. I couldn't run away; that would be abandoning Melfina. I had driven myself into a corner without knowing I had been my own enemy.   
She lined her eye up with the sight, locking and aiming precisely for my gut. Her lips, black and cold with a sleepless and stressful night, were twisted hostilely in a frown. "Why should I?"   
I whipped my blaster out with my right hand while still holding Mel, and aimed it for her head. I gulped down my conscious before it could haunt me about what I was doing. Damn, I was in such a cold sweat. I had been closer to death than this, but my friends had been fine all the while. Jim never been captured or fighting Kei Pirates without me, Melfina had never been hurt before, and Suzuka and Aisha were been tortured or killed by who knows how. I was afraid for my only family left.   
"I don't care if you shot me… I'll die quietly if you'd like me to," she said seductively, tilting her gun upward harmlessly to up her arms in the air. "Go ahead." She smiled at my hesitation. "Fire away."   
She stood there; glaring at me with those beautiful blue eyes that I knew didn't hold any love for me anymore. Iris kept her grin even as I aimed, locked, and paused. There wasn't a single thought I could pick from my mind; it was an incessant blur of pain, memories, and fear that made my head throb. How could I … kill Iris?   
Alright… I thought. Just pull the trigger, Gene…   
And I did.   
Instantly, as if an issue had been given, the cat dispatched itself from Haymou's arms, yowling as it leaped in front of Iris. The bristling, jagged sharp hairs framed her body with sharp fur while its face was ungodly snarling and twisted. Its eyes glowed, and it raised a thin aura around itself, violently shaking as it lifted that aura to enclose the nonchalant waitress as well.   
I knew I had lost the moment I heard that shot deflect off the shield. My heart sank and shattered as I heard it hit the floor. That was all I had to defend myself. I was dead. I looked up dreading the next second, and she gave me a smile that said quite clearly, "Nice try, little boy."   
But by that time, it had caught up with me.   
And by it, I mean everything.   
I hated my mother, for allowing me to leave, for not wrapping me up in her arms and bringing me to bed and keeping me home. I hated my dog Digger, for whining at the window that night, bringing me out there, for making me change my mind, for stopping me from telling my dad "No." I hated my dad, for making me feel safe when it was all a lie, a sick, sad lie to bring me to a cruel fate, for being there 100%, for smiling, for dying when I lived. I hated him for taking my death, my fall when I was going to anyway. I hated Jim, for keeping my doomed life on the right track, for being the little brother I need to lean on and hide my emotions from, for being proud of me, and I him. I hated Suzuka, for simply tolerating all my faults, for being beautiful and strong when I needed help, for her pure and genuine forgiveness of my bounty. I hated Aisha, for throwing pride to the wind and saving my ass as I was at a werewolf's jaws, for being loyal, for being there at my call and still smiling. I hated Hilda, for being dangerous and drawing me to my dream, for dying at for my success and survival, for opening that damn path. And most of all, I hated Melfina.   
I hated her for being beautiful, for not looking away and discarding the thought of kindness I needed, for not letting go, for following me into her most dangerous enemy's territory, for trying her best, for just being Mel. I hated her for making me love her.   
I hated myself for what I had been thinking? Keep fighting? No. She'd die alone and cold, out of my arms if I fought them. It wasn't impossible, but keeping Mel alive was. I'd be shot the second I took a step toward the pod, and then she'd fade away, knowing I was dead too. So as Iris aimed, I turned around, gave Mel a kiss on the cheek, then shot the first thing I saw.   
It was the wires connecting to the cockpit.   
And everything blacked out after that, along with pain. 

* * * * *

Hamyou fell silent, with her head hung, as she heard the story fade into a weary, indescribably tired drone. Shame burned in her throat, and she uncomfortable flinched at the closing of Gene's story.   
"Afterward, the pirates kept me alive while Melfina died and was incinerated. I not only had screwed up my already crashing life, but had taken the last flower from the field and burned it. Oh god, I was an empty shell afterward. I can't remember what happened for years. I was too drained to think, so they hired me out as a bounty hunter, on a chain. I got the toughest criminals, sometimes even my fellow outlaws from Blue Heaven, and they chained Aisha and Suzuka outside my and Jim's cell until they starved to death. Sick bastards."   
By now, the outlaw's face was slick with tears mixed with blood from his bleeding scars. His fists clenched until the blood pinched out.   
"The only drawback for them was that I had destroyed their way to the Leyline. They had never expected me to blow up the Outlaw Star, Melfina, and myself. So they came up with another sick scheme. They developed a time machine to travel back with, and a mind poison to use to totally control my past self's mind. It was a funny joke, I guess to them, to make me doom myself. The sick bastards thought I still was in shock and that I wouldn't notice. But while I had the poison, I dulled it with water before they turned around and saw.   
"I can only hope it worked."   
Silence fell like a heavy cloak over the dark planet of Angel, with its dark inhabitants and their dark pasts and futures, and it stayed still for minutes on end. Gene's strained steel blue eyes were cold and untrusting, as he studied Hamyou, then laid down and fell asleep, silent.   
Hamyou, still silent, turned in the darkness, and then adjusted Jim into a comfortable position on the floor with his jacket on the pillow. He had fallen asleep, still standing against the bars. The story had been told to him a hundred times, and tears shed from him dried on the layers of other on the floor. Her lips tilted in a sad smile, seeing him sleep so cutely. But she eventually turned from him and left, the doors clanking behind her.   


Author's Notes:   
********************   
It's done! Whoo! That was a long one! Please, just review would you all? It keeps me going and I really need it! Pluzease! Read. And. Review. 

Chustang   



	8. Traitor Strike

Cowboy, Take Me Away - Chapter Six Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust 

Chapter 6   
"Traitor Strike"   


June 16. 12:35   
Jim Hawking blinked suddenly, feeling a warm, stinging sensation in his eyes. It only took a moment before he realized just what it was and quickly snubbed his hand against his eyes to stop it coming on again. The fact that the crying did nothing but intensify the pain was burned deep in his mind and he knew the consequences. He leaned more heavily against Melfina, still shaking with rage and pain.   
Meanwhile, a concerned frown possessed the bio-android's face, yet the emotions behind that mask were being stirred in a pot of confusion. She had never had this; emotions were a shocking new concept to her. The fact a thing could cause a certain reaction in her seemed disturbing to the soul. Melfina might not have had philosophy, but she had intellect. It had been programmed.   
If she had emotions, it meant her actions could be manipulated like strings. Pull that one, get a reaction, and pull that one even harder, get a stronger and blinder-led reaction. It meant she could be a tool, while believing she was otherwise. Her head was throbbing with anguish. Melfina already knew her strings were being pulled, and hard. There was one emotion, strange and unpredictable. It had thousands of names, but with little definition or explanation. Gilliam had called it affection, Suzuka had called it attraction, Aisha had called it falling, and Jim had called it a crush. She had no name for it, except for to call it by its inspirer.   
She was confused about this too. It seemed impossible to understand just what Jim meant. She tried to comfort him but he had withdrawn into thoughts, pale, sweat-licked face twisted up and silent. With her free hand, she held the picture frame in her lap, running her fingers across the glass lightly.   
In the dim, orange-tinted light streaming through the blinds, she could see the faces again. First she tilted her eyes toward the mother, then the father, and finally to the kid and stayed there. Melfina ran her hand around the frame, and brought it back to her lips to nurse her finger. Her finger had been cut on a sharp edge and it bled. She stopped the bleeding then turned the frame over curiously in the dark.   
Examining it, she found a corner of paper sticking from the back, old and tan from years. It was strange, because there wasn't a corner of the photo missing. Melfina tilted her head and angled it to get into more light. She saw the outline where the back detached to open and moved the latch from it, the back quickly falling out without support. Instantly, a folded piece of paper fell to the floor.   
"Hey! We're home!"   
Melfina, startled, stuffed the paper quickly into her pocket without time to open it.   
The high-pitched voice accompanied a loud, metallic banging on the door, which Jim and Mel had been leaning against, as the rest of the crew arrived home. At their backs, the heavy metal door tried to swing open, but only could a crack. Orange-tinted light from the streetlamps flooded in, with the silhouette of a familiar Ctarl-Ctarl cutting it into a shape.   
Aisha's familiar, inquisitive aqua-blue eyes, contrasted by her smoky white hair, popped merrily in through the crack. She craned her neck around the edge to give a perky smile. "Hey Jim, Mel!" her voice was shrill, and it was clear she'd been drinking a bit too much. The Ctarl-Ctarl stood, unmoving, in the door while her tail whipped around.   
"Aisha, would you mind asking them to move please? It's late and there's a profound chill in the air. I'm wet from the rain and I'd like to get inside and get to bed soon," came the exasperated groan from Suzuka, as the wind blew her wet black hair in her face, standing behind her.   
The Ctarl-Ctarl gave a sheepish smile, then said to Melfina and Jim, "Oh, could you guys move just for a minute…" She suddenly trailed off, seeing Mel stand quietly, holding a quietly sobbing Jim to her shoulder with a loving hand stroking his disheveled blond hair. She sense the disturbed silence from hyper-energetic Aisha and she locked her brown eyes with her aqua-blue ones, fuming with confusion.   
Instantly, the tanned hands of Aisha had found their way to rest on Jim's shaking shoulder. With an unseen side of her personality shining through, she brushed the hair from his face as he desperately tried to hide his face in Melfina's soaked shoulder and stroked his cheek comfortingly. "Jimmy, what happened?" she urged, genuinely concerned. "Oh my god… what's wrong?"   
"Go away, everyone please just go away!" he shrieked between sobs, voice muffled against her shoulder. He shuddered even more wildly and the hysterical sobs became louder. "I want to be alone!"   
The cold night air rushed in, dotted with rain, as Suzuka walked in, quickly shutting the door behind her. She brushed the strands of wet black hair from her face, before her lazily scanning eyes fell calmly on the two troubled girls and the trembling boy they were trying to tranquil. She seemed to run this over in her mind, lifting her eyes to Jim, then Aisha, and finally, Melfina.   
"What happened to Jim?" The reserved tone of her voice had clearly been abandoned as she approached the shaking boy. Suzuka studied the pale, distressed face as much as she could, lifting concerned eyes to the android occasionally to ask, "Melfina? Did anything happen?"   
A swelling, burning distress boiled up in her throat and she was sweating for some reason. She had been programmed not to have any kind of anxiety or panic to keep her alive; was she getting real emotions? Melfina, tears streaming from her dark and swirling brown eyes, was choking on words. "I don't know! I don't know!" She put her head on Jim's, trying to calm him. "Oh Jim, can't you just tell us what's wrong?"   
He suddenly stopped his incessant sobbing, rubbing the red from his pained eyes. Jim settled into the warm arms of Melfina, waiting for the convulsions of obsessive sobbing to diminish. He glanced around the dark room cautiously, like a frightened kitten with large blue eyes, and saw their pure hearted concern even in the dim light. The boy sighed deeply, massaging his temples as they filled to the brink with the same red-hot pain.   
"Alright," he surrendered, voice raspy and burnt out.   
"Hey, take it easy, twerp," Aisha warned, ruffling his hair and giving a sad smile. The Ctarl-Ctarl was replied back with a sad smile, which came with less emotion and more a dulled mask. She could see Jim was holding back emotions.   
"Aniki… he lied to me," Jim said in a burst of courage; he didn't want to pour it all out and get hysterical again, and he didn't want to lock it back up. That secret was foul and it burned. He couldn't keep it anymore. So he continued, trying to summon up more courage. "You see, I don't have any memory of my parents besides their faces and names. That's all that's left. I know my dad died in a horrible pirate ambush… I was with him, or that's what Gene found out. I had no one left and I was looking for help, wandering the streets. I didn't know he was dead; I didn't want to believe it. I ended up on Gene's couch one night.   
"I had no idea what had happened to my mom. After somehow getting into Gene's house, I cried so loud I woke him up. When he asked why I was crying, I just said, 'I can't find Mom, and Daddy's not waking up.' Gene said it was fine. He lied, the bastard. He said he and I were stepbrothers and that I had been on the streets for weeks. Gene said that my mom had married his dad, and that Mom was just visiting friends for a while. That she got stuck on a wayside and had no way home before her transmitter batteries died.   
Jim leaned against Melfina, feeling the onslaught of hot tears again. He clenched his fists around the fabric of her shirt, trying to keep a straight face. "That isn't my mom," he said, flickering his gaze toward the picture frame on the floor. He seemed to loose composure and falling crying back into Melfina's shoulder. "There all dead, you bastard Aniki!"   
"Jim… I'm sure-" Suzuka lifted a hand to his shoulder, rubbing it in a soothing gesture, trying to console him best she could. But suddenly, he felt her hand whip away and Aisha and Melfina traced it to snap back to her sword. The assassin froze, lifting the sword at the ready in total silence and her lips pursed coldly. Her gaze never wavered from the door, even as a rusty creak came from it. It was opening.   
Cold, icy-tinted light fell like a ghost's mask across her face, making her pale skin seem deathly white in the moonlight. The streetlights were off, giving a dark mood to the silence. Her eyes flashed angrily, but with surprise overruling hate. She saw the face, and saw the deception behind it.   
"It's not him," she whispered subconsciously, in a low, harsh tone. 

  
I don't want to live on someday when my motto is last week   
I don't want to be responsible for your fractured heart   
and its wounded beat   
I don't want to be a substitute for the smoke you've been inhaling   
What do you thank me   
What do you thank me for   
  
Exert from Not The Doctor by Alanis Morissette   


The cold, almost dusty white light that washed over the assassin highlighted her contrasting dark features. Her steely black eyes were narrowed at whoever had the door open; they were oblivious because the open door was blocking the other's view. In a blur, her wooden sword matched a bullet in a flurry of sparks and whipped the blade down to knock the projectile to the floor. Suzuka's face was hard and concentrated.   
A fast, lean black figure whirled down on her in attack, matching the sword with a long pipe. She easily blocked the attack, and then attacked again, cutting the top half of the pipe like butter. It crashed to the floor, but the figure, with his back to the group, moved like lightning and quickly jabbed the rest of the weapon into Suzuka's gut. She staggered backward at the force of the blow, and it was ungodly how much speed and predatory wits he had. Recovering, she dodged another bullet that snapped the table in half and filled the air with shrapnel.   
Her foe gave a possessed scream of hate, leaping up above her in impossible strength. He whirled the metal between his fingers before it settled in a powerful batting position. With a lick of blood mixing with her sweat, the assassin raised the bokuto again and conjured a burst of wind to protect it. Suzuka gave no cry; she paused only a moment to size him up then raced up to meet the onslaught.   
The two evenly matched fighters' weapons clashed loudly in midair, giving a rain of sparks, and their faces, cold and angry, were close in evaluation. Suzuka nearly lost her balance, seeing the blood-freezing eyes that were ghostly and hellish at the sametime. At her hesitation, he slid the metal under the sharp edge of the bokuto in a flash of determination and lightning quick nerves, flinging it roughly from her grasp. In midair, she saw him, in slurred time, raise a foot and wrench the bokuto from her in a hot-blooded frown.   
Suzuka had now dropped the mask of cold confidence. There was no confidence left in her well of cold emotions. Her face was sickeningly pale with fear and her throat twisted like a vice. She'd never known fear for her life since the bloodbath of murders in her village, and now, to be killed by a turned ally, it was sick irony. She'd been the one trying to kill him in the first place.   
Well, I guess he taught me wrong….   
The air filled with nothing less than respectful silence as the famous assassin, the indestructible and beautiful killer, Twilight Suzuka, was thrown violently into the wall, where the concrete promptly crumbled and buried her.   
  
The stranger gave a deliriously sickening smirk at his success, wiping blood from his hands. Its pure and unbridled evil intention was strange. He lifted the trophy, the bokuto of the infamous assassin, up to be admired, before he causally slipped it under his belt. He didn't bother to notice the awestruck trio, and the Ctarl-Ctarl who watched with angrily glowing eyes.   
"Hmm." His voice echoed in the cold air, and he lifted a hand to rub his chin. "That was easy. Oh well, just another sash to add to my collection…" The stranger started walking toward the dusty pile of rubble, ignoring the gravel move as its prisoner tried to escape. With no pity even considered on his maniacal face, he leaned over and was lifting the bokuto to drive it in when there was a slash of pain across his face and whirl of white and tan.   
The killer was thrown backwards in an immense slam and it was a few moments before he regained his senses and skidded to a stop. A hand went up to his face, where the claws of Aisha had struck sweet revenge, and wiped the sticky red liquid from his cheek. Instantly, a disgusted frown came across him and he lifted stormy eyes to the creature.   
But it was clear she hadn't looked at him. He knew they'd all ignored his face, and an urge to laugh bubbled in his false mind. The magic controlling him was too strong for the real mind to surface, and even then, it would have been hopeless for him anyway. Aisha was wildly sobbing and clawing at the rubble in an uncontrollable drive to rescue her fallen comrade. The Ctarl-Ctarl suddenly bolted back, disturbed at what she saw.   
"Suzu…" was the only word that came to her lips, as she held the already cold hand to her cheek. Its pale skin was scarred, and soon was dripping with tears.   
Melfina was silently screaming with pure, indescribable horror flowing her veins like a venomous poison, which sickened her to death. The android was pale herself, holding a shaking Jim to her, as he focused his eyes directly on the attacker. He never wavered, trying to pry her arms from him. Her lips formed incoherent words of undimmed pain, eyes blurred to confusion. Emotions. They hurt.   
The Ctarl-Ctarl stood suddenly, eyes shadowed in deep thought. Her lips burned with a growl, causing her hair to lift in a magic aura emitting from her. Aisha choked back tears, biting her lip with long canines, before her fist rose angrily and she knew she had to avenge this. The world would pay for killing her. Aisha had watched all her friends die, the curse to being immortal, and this was definitely enough.   
"Alright, face me you cowardly snake! I'll gut your yellow belly!" she roared, flashing demonic blue eyes at the assassin of the assassin for the first time. Lines of Ctarl blood streamed down her chin, scrunching her whiskers in a sting. The killer's face was dark and void of emotion again. "Bring it on! Come on!"   
"Aisha!" Jim yelled suddenly, trying to run out between the two combatants. Tears were bitterly stinging as he desperately tried to spit the words out. "Don't do it!"   
Her accusing blue eyes snapped toward him, and she threateningly raised claws up into fists. "Why shouldn't I?! This bastard just killed SUZUKA!" she snarled at him. The cold gaze was giving daggers of threats at the blonde, warning him it was personal and the man would die before anyone else on the planet that night.   
Jim swallowed, mind blurring through all the pain. It wouldn't come. "Because its… its, its -"   
A deep, all-to-familiar laugh came, an insolent gesture from the assailant, as he found the pitiful emotion display too much to hold back. The man lifted his hands up in a faked surrender, while trying to subdue his laughter. He flashed disturbing blue eyes at the tiger girl, and smiled at her reaction. "I guess you found it out, didn't you," he mocked silkily. "It hadn't dawned on you to find out just who had killed your precious friend, hadn't it? You didn't think it would be your captain to kill his friend?"   
Aisha blinked, pausing in her silent transformation. Her eyes wandered his face and they were swirling with shock, but the stormy mood to them just intensified more. "Gene…"   
The red head blinked sinister white eyes, turning to Melfina and Jim to give an affirming look to them. Gene slipped his hand into the castor's sheath, and lifted it to make them stare, stunned, into the glistening black barrel, from which death could erupt at any moment. Predatory eyes with the frosty tone of white stared at Aisha, and his lips formed harsh words. "You, move and I'll kill your little friends here," he snapped.   
But her rage had blocked it all out. She snarled rabidly at him, barely able to contain herself. "You're a pirate aren't you?" her voice was low and ominous, venomous to the ears. "Lying to get your hands on the Galactic Leyline while playing innocent all along! You played us all for fools; you were a lie, weren't you!"   
"No," Gene purred back, clearly untroubled by the hellish power that was shaking her body. He kept the gun trained on the two, as it stirred ancient magic to life. "This is actually a lie now."   
Jim shuddered, and he spoke up in a hushed, disturbed child voice. His entire world was shattering again, with the motor that had died threatening to explode and top the disaster. The pain of losing his parents burned in his bleeding heart, as he realized his brother, his friend, and his mentor was a traitor; somehow tied to Pirates. Gene was his replacement father, and there was no replacement for that. "Aniki?" he whispered, drawing Melfina to him again, searching for the mother figure to comfort him.   
The outlaw ignored this from Jim, continuing. "I'm not really Gene Starwind." He laughed to himself. "Hah, there isn't one. He's dead."   
"Liar…" Jim hissed.   
"Oh no, he's quite dead. I'm just a program possessing his body, and I'm getting controls from Tao Magic. Gene is just a name for this shell; there isn't anything left here. You see his future self, who came from five years in the future, poisoned him then killed him to set the toxic in motion," the redhead said in a relaxed and yep-that's-right voice.   
"I've just come to set the XGP in the hands of its rightful owners, the Kei clan, along with the android that accesses the controls, Melfina. I didn't come here to kill anybody, but a fresh piece of prey is hard to resist practicing on, you know? And if you think you'll get Gene back, I'd really hate to rain on your parade.   
"This body is programmed to self destruct after the task is finished," he finished dangerously, turning his horrific, white-eyed gaze to the android.   
"No!"   
"Gene!"   
There was a ferocious roar, that shook the very earth with its booming hatred, and there was a shrill yowl as the white haired Ctarl-Ctarl brewed fire in her demonic-looking eyes. All eyes came to settle on her as she growled out a warning, crouching on the floor, claws growing for the ready. "Time to prove it, bastard," she snapped, suddenly rippling in a flash of white energy. It faded, revealing an unearthly white tiger whose crystal blue eyes never faded from their anger.   
He just smiled. "Fine."   
  


*********************   
Author's Notes:   
Well, Little Diva Girl1, I hope I explained it enough for you. And for the rest of my fans, I hope I supplied you with enough of a cliffhanger to last until summer! Yep, that's right! I probably won't have the seventh chapter up until summer break! Review please! And tuson tucks! (That's Norwegian for 'Thousand Thank You's) 

Chustang   



	9. No Arms to Hold Back

Cowboy, Take Me Away - Chapter 7 Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust   
--------------------------------------   
Chapter 7   
"No Arms to Hold Back" 

  
June 16. 12:41   
Melfina was definitely not enticed by this bloody, dark and dirty dance called fighting. And watching the two predict each other's death in their stormy eyes seemed to cut a certain string. It was violent and inhuman. The android's misty brown eyes were flashing confusedly back from the transformed Ctarl-Ctarl, a sleek and roaring white tiger, and her beloved outlaw who stood silently, horribly sick white eyes narrowed with no emotion.   
It couldn't be right…   
Gene couldn't be dead…   
He's right there…   
…He couldn't win, she knew. Aisha was immortal.   


The battle was like listening to the wind. The first charge was a blur of predatory speed, with only the disturbed air making a noise, and the night's darkness clearly was no hindrance. Dangerous, precise, and silent, they both whirled back from the charge, recovering from the wounds they had received. The blurring form of Aisha, a bitterly snarling thing of rage and glowing power, slowed to a halt, and her body was crouched menacingly. She was so engulfed by anger that she didn't notice the long slash along her shoulder blade, where the bokuto had struck forcefully, and the blood dripped silently to the ground.   
Gene however came out of the dash, leaning against the arm he had pressed to the ground, and untouched in battle. With bokuto at his side, the redhead outlaw whirled it up to meet the blur of white and black. The whole of Aisha's weight was pressed against it, and the tiger was slashing wildly at the human, as she tried to stand on the bokuto. In a sudden jerk, the blade came out beneath her, and the Ctarl-Ctarl snarled angrily at just how strong Gene was. Her crystal blue eyes were narrowed to a glowing slit, and in a sleek blur, she leaped down on the outlaw, knocking the bokuto from his hands with a whip of a massive paw.   
It rolled to a stop, just an inch out of his reach.   
Her muzzle was gaping in anger, and her whiskers scrunched up in a snarl. A hot wave of breath came from her, as Aisha gave a devilish grin, pinning her forearms against his chest. Slowly, his icy white eyes dropped the silent assassin act, and the outlaw began to feel his lungs collapse under the force and weight exerted against him. Gene was nearly screaming in pain; ribs were snapping.   
His once dark and considering blue eyes had lost all their soul, and were overcome with a cold mechanical tone. He gritted his teeth and patiently waited the painfully slow onslaught out. It was impossible to move his arms without the eyes of the Ctarl-Ctarl watching and the wicked claws she had slashing down on them. Gene, or more correctly, the program possessing his body, knew she could cut them like butter.   
A gruff, slurred voice that came like gravel on wood mocked him. "Game, set, match." 

Melfina sudden felt something in her burst in disgust, pain, and hatred. She began to back away from Jim, who had busied himself watching the battle and evaluating the chances his possessed Aniki had. Gene was weaker, slower, and more drained then the lithely primed Aisha, but a shocking predator sense had resurfaced in him, which was greater than the white tiger's raw power, and Jim knew it. Gene had a chance. Was that even good?   
The ghostly white light weakly peering into the dark whole of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises made her eyes distort with darkness, and Melfina staggered back. She couldn't stand it. Gene was dying, and it was pulling strings deep in her android heart. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the reaction…   
Every strand of her very fabric shivered with fear, and a surge of adrenaline and fear caused her to suddenly find herself staggering out on the streets. She was running. Melfina blinked and paused, clutching at her throat for air, and steadied herself against the bars along the sidewalk. Her bare feet shuffled nervously in a pool of water, which shined in the moonlight, and her slick face turned to glance around, pale and sickly. The cold and empty streets were disturbingly comforting.   
Oh god…   
Melfina crashed to her knees, breathing hard. Her eyes swirled with darkness and her mind was consumed by that crushing force some call depression. The android now hated emotions with all her heart, and it felt like it was being ripped little by little in half. She hated it, and the memories of the good emotions were thrown into the back of her mind. She could only focus on it now, feel only the emotions she had now, and it was unimportant to remember when it felt good when those strings were pulled.   
The black-haired android suddenly gulped, and her quivering lips formed over a few, chattering words that she knew would end the emotions. "It was you…" Melfina gulped, "who broke my…mason plate…"   
  
  
Aisha screamed. Her silky white fur was charred off in a fiery instant, and black ash resulting from the eruption of energy. The sleek creature was a smoky black, her fur burned, and the pads of her paws were throbbing red with blood. The Ctarl-Ctarl was flung away from the possessed Gene Starwind in a fuming boom of light, and her punished body collapsed to the floor after rolling heavily. Her crystal blue eyes were drained of their deadly light and she was struggling to raise her body, loathing in shock, and Aisha was afraid.   
From the light, where she expected a defiant and brash man to stand, there was a bloody, shuddering body, on the verge of eternal collapse. Gene slowly rose, after expelling the lethal tiger away with a burst of chi. It was a sickening sight to befall them next. The explosion he had caused was like biting on a grenade for him. Gene's hollow shell became totally visible as the light faded.   
The force Aisha had given into him had crushed more than half of his ribs, and their jagged edges were poking sickeningly at his skin, bleeding. He had taken damage to his hands from intense sword fighting and they were scarred and cut up almost beyond repair. Gene's demonic white eyes were narrowed and bloodshot, and his arm instantly went to comfort his broken body.   
"Aniki!" Jim cried suddenly. And without any arms to hold him back, the younger outlaw rushed blindly to his brother's side and, on an impulse, threw his arms around Gene's neck.   
"Jim!" Aisha cried, in a slurring, gravelly voice as she painfully transformed back into her human-like form. Her tanned hand extended to him as she clawed quickly to her feet.   
The cold spark of silence Jim got plus the warning from Aisha suddenly clashed in his mind, and his arms against the familiar flesh of his Aniki held none of its warmth. It was cold; and that's what scared him. The blonde staggered back in fear and the ungodly white eyes locked fiercely on him. There was no pity or mercy even considering in those icy white things, and the possessed Gene Starwind raised a fist to knock the annoyance away from him.   
Aisha was staggering up in human form, her bleeding arm barely withstanding her weight while the other soothed her intense burns. Her entire body was mottled with dark burns the color of ash, marking a ghostly scar beneath her furious blue eyes. She flickered them up once again, and a hell of anger welled up in her again.   
It became a whirl again, as the Ctarl-Ctarl leaped in an unstoppable rage. Jim was thrown back from the intense whir of strength and screams by Aisha's hand and she crouched angrily in front of Gene as he tried to regain his feet. In his frosty white eyes she saw a last burst of chi building, but she knew it was a last resort. He'd die after another explosion like that. With a drained echo of victory making her smile, she leaped away from a slash he administered by grabbing a long piece of shrapnel next to him and lifting the sharp edge to her vulnerable face. Aisha was on the brink of exhaustion, but seeing Gene trying to hurt Jim cut a deep nerve and it bled with rage.   
Gene lifted himself and rolled away quickly from Aisha's returning slash, and it missed widely. She shrieked shrilly, and pounced onto her prey in a roar. But her slam landed on air again, as the outlaw painfully dodged the onslaught. Once the red and black blur paused to find his opponent again, Jim saw his arm shoot up to his chest, where shattered ribs poked bloodily from his skin. A knot bundled up in his stomach. The blonde nervously looked over to the table, where Gene's old pistol, the one from the late 1980's, which was now just a piece of junk, shine in the dull light. Jim gulped, flashing his blue eyes back to the battle. He'd shot it before, for practice, but it seemed wrong, deep in his fabric.   
I hope I don't regret this….   
Jim lanced his fears in a burst of emotion, and leaped up to grab the gun.   
Meanwhile, the strain on them was doubly draining. Aisha was constantly on the attack, and that was eating slowly away at even her, while Gene seemed to be struggling with his injuries, but his dodging took less energy. They were both going down the same path to the same fate, intense shellshock and possibly death, but on different train cars. The redhead tried desperately to put on a cold face, but the fiery pain shooting through his entire body was rattling the installed mind, and it was obvious the Tao Magic he had received from the poison was beginning to drain from his veins; there was a slick red carpet along the floor, lined with hints of vibrant green.   
Aisha stood up and cornered Gene in a dark corner, snarling. She leaped up and prepared to sent his head rolling with a sweeping kick, when he rushed up to meet it. It came unexpected, like a blast of lightning, and he clasped the foot easily in his torn hands and wrenched it against his shoulder. The white Ctarl-Ctarl shriek as she was flipped over in mid air, and thrown onto the ground with a resounding thud.   
Gene smirked weakly, standing triumphantly as the groaning Ctarl-Ctarl rolled slowly over onto her side where she promptly doubled over. The outlaw snatched up the bokuto, blinked, and stabbed the sword into the floor and pivoted instantly away. Only a breath later did the whirl of fury and white realize there was no body there and she snapped her eyes up to flash her demonic fire.   
He agilely pivoted on the sword again and brandished it in Aisha's face as she leaped short again, her long, clawed fingernails brushing against his boots, and it cut down her ear. With a crazed howl of pain, she clutched at the bloody ear and lunged at Gene in a burst of anger. And blinking again, she was surprised to feel the solidity of a body beneath her crushing slam, and it was refreshing. She had the treacherous, backstabbing bastard at her disposal and it felt good knowing he was a toy. To be broken.   
But her joy was cut short as Gene's assassin wits bubbled back up in his battered body, and the redhead's sinister white eyes told her in a spark of anger that he wasn't done yet. As they tumbled through midair, he twisted violently in her grip and Aisha, unexpecting this, was shook off. Gene impacted against the wall, ready, and pushed off to grasp the railing on the top level. He smirked, and then swung himself over the metal.   
Aisha impacted against the wall, which cracked ominously, without reacting to Gene's escape and crumpled painfully to the floor. But her pain didn't restrain her long before she snapped her body up to leap up. She scrambled up to the bars just as her opponent slipped up into the rafters of the rented apartment. Snarling, Aisha followed up.   
As her demonically glowing blue eyes scanned the darkness, a heavy silence descended upon her in a looming presence. Her panting breath stirred up long-forgotten dust and it swirled in the light from the small window. There was nothing there, and she cautiously glanced around. "Hello?" she questioned the quiet softly.   
"No trespassing. And next time, call first." 

----------------------------------------------------------   
Oh hold me now, I feel contagious   
Am I the only place that you've left to go?   
She cries that life is like some movie black and white   
Dead actors, vacant lies   
Over and over and over again she cries   
  
Exert from Hemorrhage (In My Hands) by Fuel   
---------------------------------------------------------- 

Jim was unable to see anything of the combatants in the dusty rafters by the time the pistol had loaded. He gulped, and a fine sweat made the gun slide tentatively in his fingers. The younger outlaw aimed the barrel up at the silent rafters, looking for the one he needed to shoot. It was going to haunt him, and he be hated for it, but a burning in her heart told him his Aniki shouldn't lose, while all the while another part was screaming no.   
"Hello?"   
His heart stopped. But his fingers unconsciously slid tighter around the trigger.   
Silence tightened his fingers until the low, secretive voice that answered drove him just about over the edge. "No trespassing. And next time, call first."   
There was an explosion of white, and Jim yelped in fear while it flung him forcefully back in a shower of sparks. He knew it was Gene's last resort and it was probably fatal, but he wouldn't let it happen. The rafter that the blast had originated from dislodged suddenly with a metal whine, and Aisha and Gene were dragged down with it.   
Jim fell back from the heat of the sparks and involuntarily pulled the trigger. 

* * * * *

A hand came up to wipe the blood away, and came away soaked crimson. In disgust, the victor of the intense battle wiped it simply on the collapsed and pinned body of the inferior. The victor leaned back from the body pinned beneath the rafter, and it groaned in unconsciousness with all the pain. So much… so unfamiliar… I've never lost before…   
After being hit, the one who had proved weaker overall had been too slowed from the blood loss and pain in the side to dodge the falling beam of steel. It had crushed the pitiful thing that had to misfortune to be in the way, that is, after the bullet had struck Aisha.   
Gene stood defiantly, and his ribs snapped more, unable to take the topping movement to the whirl he had forced from himself. The outlaw winced, and the program in his mind began to fragment from the loss of the diluted poison. It had been weak in the first place, and he had less power than he was supposed to, and now it had bled mostly out. The possessed body staggered desperately out the door, where it knew the prize had fled, right past the shivering body in the corner.   
Gene ignored the whimpering for "Aniki" and the white eyes he had were dull and darkening slowly. He had little time left. The dark figure disappeared into the night.   
  


***************   
Author's Notes:   
As I promised, it its now officially summer. I'm right on the note! I wouldn't have had this done if *_*EvitahA.A.'s party hadn't been canceled out of the blue while we were partying at a black-lighted, loud music bowling party for school. Man!!! Stupid stupid! And Anime Angel, I can't thank you enough for your really enthusiastic reviews! Thankcu and once again, tuson tucks (Yes, I'm Norwegian, so there!) 

Chustang   
  



	10. Castor Cowboy

Cowboy, Take Me Away - Chapter 8 Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust 

Chapter 8   
"Castor Cowboy" 

  
June 16. 12:55   
Gene flickered his eyes up and down the street. A flash of color washed down into his mind, and for a moment, the black and white world seemed to slap him in the face, trying to wake him up. The poison was wearing off, and every few seconds Gene's real mind would surface just to be forced back into unconsciousness. A shiver of panic came through the program, and he forced the burning muscles into running. Time was ticking. 

------------------------------------------------------   
Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet   
Did you finally get the chance to dance along   
the light of day   
And head back to the Milky Way   
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind   
Was it everything you wanted to find   
And did you miss me while you were looking   
for yourself out there 

Exert from Drops of Jupiter by Train   
-------------------------------------------------------- 

The redheaded outlaw staggered suddenly, tripping over a lump in the street he hadn't noticed. With a scream of pain coming from the thing he'd ran into, Gene was thrown to the ground and the icy pool of water drenched him as he skidded painfully to a stop on his side. The disturbance flared up another burning pain and another rib cracked, audible enough for the whole street to hear.   
He gritted his teeth in pain and anger, as the puddle reddened, and he lifted his hand to keep the broken bones in place. Flashing white eyes that were growing bluer, he growled at the dark thing bundled up in a ball, "Watch it…"   
Melfina blinked, seeing the handsome face of the puller of the strings bearing those haunting white eyes, and cringed. "Sorry sir," she muttered while trying to hide her face, and the android backed away like a puppy dog in the pound. Her heart was thundering in her throat and ears, so it was impossible hear if he said anything. It was impossible to know if he was lifting a fist, gun, a knife, to kill her, or just what he was doing. Tears were streaking through dirt on her face, and she kept backing up, muttering, "Sorry, so sorry. Forgive me please, I'm just -"   
Suddenly, the sludgy water in the water went flying as the possessed Gene Starwind lunged at Melfina without warning. She screamed in reply as he grabbed her ankle, and the bioandroid collapsed onto the street violently. She was jolted against the tarred road, and she could feel a cut along her chin. But she had no time to waste. In fear, she began to reluctantly kick at him, and one hit him squarely in the face.   
Gene felt like someone had smashed his face in, and he clutched at his bleeding nose with an anger boiling up in the Tao Magic program. His white eyes flickered with their original steely blue color for a second, but faded again. As the terrified girl staggered up, slipping on the sludgy water, he lifted himself up against the railing and reached for the castor at his waist. Breathing heavily with pain, as another mind began to grapple for control of his body, he shakily leveled the gun, barely able to aim straight.   
It was almost impossible for him to aim, with red-hot pain burning at the back of his eyes, the darkness, and water and mud from the puddle dripping down his face. Gene blinked heavily, focusing on the moving shape only a few feet away from him, then tightened his fingers around the trigger. It snapped, as he collapsed back to the ground, and the blast of ancient magic ricocheted off the nearest streetlamp, after missing widely, striking him in the gut. The real Gene smiled, feeling the raging fire burning through him, as he was forced back into unconsciousness, knowing that in dying, he'd really won.   
And Melfina turned to see him fall.   


End 

*************   
Author's Notes: 

Don't worry, there's still the epilogue! 

Chustang   



	11. Epilogue

Cowboy, Take Me Away - Epilogue Cowboy, Take Me Away   
By Chustang Sundust   
---------------------------------   
Epilogue   


The watery pink blossoms that fell around the stormy gray tombstone were as light on the wind as feathers, and they decorated the cheerless place. Sunday morning that day was indeed sunny to its name, and the fresh and clean sunlight knitted itself over the soft trees and a figure could be seen walking away from the grave. The figure paused and looked back at the rose bouquet on the grave. Jim turned, and walked toward the red ship shining off in the distance. 

Aisha suddenly twisted up her face, eyes crossing, and let out a cute sneeze. The entire house of cards she'd been working on teetered dangerously, but settled safely back. The Ctarl-Ctarl heaved a sigh of relief. Lying in bed hadn't been or was fun; it had hurt like hell trying to reach the box of cards on the bedside table even. With the house of cards propped on a large book, Aisha leaned back onto the pillow to admire her work. She'd have to show this to Jim, once he got back.   
After a week in the hospital and another two recovery weeks at home, her legs had still much aching to endure. Aisha had had three fractures in her right leg, the left one had broken twice, her kneecap was sore from wear, and the fight with Gene had left her intensely drained. Aisha felt as weak as a Terran, which she commented on fervently everyday. But it was her last recommended day in bed, at least. Tomorrow she could be roaming the ship as usual and having fun. The crew might need it, after the death of…   
"Good Morning Aisha!" Suddenly, the door swung open to her room and the slight wind kicked up by it hit the cards. Her blue eyes went wide.   
"No Mel!" she said breathlessly, but it was too late. The cards scattered around her bed and fell silently to the ground. Aisha slapped her palm against her forehead, muttering a sharp, "Doh!"   
The bioandriod reverently blushed and said, holding one hand up to her lips while the other held a plate, "Oh, sorry Aisha… Here's your breakfast, anyway."   
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------   
I said I wanna touch the earth, I wanna break it in my hands   
I wanna grow something wild, and unruly   
I wanna sleep on the hard ground, in the comfort of your arms   
on a pillow of blue bonnets, in a blanket made of stars 

Oh it sounds good to me   
I said, 

Cowboy take me away, fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue   
set me free, oh, I pray, closer to heaven above, and closer to you   
Closer to you 

Exert from Cowboy Take Me Away by the Dixie Chicks   
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Playing cards in the open sunlight of the bridge seemed to make a long lost emotion resurface in all of them. Even the incredibly sore Aisha who sat stiffly wrapped up in a thick quilt seemed to remember it. Relaxation. Melfina smiled secretively to herself, and then suddenly turned her head at a noise. She placed her hand down and said to Jim and Aisha, "Be right back. I think someone's at the door."   
Aisha blinked, watching her stand up, and looked to Jim. "I'm going to quit," she said, throwing down her hand as well.   
His blue eyes lit up with surprise, beneath the tossed mat of blonde hair. The young outlaw asked curiously, "What? Can't we keep playing Aisha?" Jim hid his cards in his hand, stopping to listen to her answer.   
A toothy grin came across her face, and the Ctarl-Ctarl playfully punched him in the shoulder. "I always lose to you, Jimmy!" Aisha said in a high-pitched voice. The tiger girl stiffly helped herself stand up by placing her hand on his shoulder and staggering up carefully. She drew the blanket around her, and smiled down at him. "Besides, I want to see the look on Mel's face when she sees the surprise."   
Jim blinked in surprise, gasping as he realized what Aisha was poking at. The kid flashed an anxious glance to the calendar. "Oh my gosh, I totally forgot! Is it July 6th already? He's back; that's him at the door. Quick!" He jumped up, scattering his royal flush across the pile of other cards, and helped Aisha to run quietly to the door. They crouched at the door to the hallway, where Melfina stood, unlocking the door to the outside. Both held their breath, knowing who was there but not what would happen, and had to resist giggling.   
Melfina finished undoing the last lock, and it opened with a loud click, as she pulled the door open. She closed her eyes and nodded, saying, "Starwind and Hawking, how may we help you?" as she'd been taught, before she realized just who she was looking at.   
"Hey Mel, come on. You don't have be all formal with me, you know," a low and nonchalant voice said, as a gloved hand came up lightheartedly to pinch Melfina's reddening cheek. The guy walking with a slight wince to his originally arrogant step gave a smile to Melfina, drawing her to his shoulder for a second, and then went to the smirking Aisha and Jim. "Hey Jim," he said nonchalantly, leaning forward to mock punch him. But the smile he lifted underneath unique scars turned into shock, as Mel blinked again, and exploded with happiness.   
"Gene!!"   
"Melfina! Hey, wait, Mel-"   
It didn't take long after piecing her composure back together for the bioandriod to give the redhead a flying tackle/glomp, screaming in glee the entire time. Before he could react, she had grabbed him by the neck and abruptly pulled his face to hers and locked him in a full blown-out kiss. Gene would have gladly jumped out of his skin at this shock, but he couldn't even breathe, and he flashed shocked blue eyes to Aisha and Jim. Before he could even see them, Melfina suddenly yanked on his neck so hard that he crashed to the ground after her, nearly blacking out with the lack of air.   
Aisha was rolling on aching guts with laughter, and the only thing to stop her from rolling clear to the moon was when she kept colliding with the door. The Ctarl-Ctarl was aching with pain, yet laughter had her in a vice, and it seemed impossible to stop her. Laughter was the best medicine anyway, and she had just had an overdose. Jim just cheerfully smiled; scratching his blonde head, then dragged the breathless Aisha from the hallway. The outlaw saw the button on the bridge side of the door, glanced back at Gene, the pro who had been just hit on and dragged down by the amateur, and was probably close to suffocation, and slammed the button with his fist.   
Jim sighed, as the steel door briskly slammed shut behind him. "Welcome home, Aniki," he said smugly, dragging Aisha behind him as she squeezed a teddy bear in the unstoppable laughter, until the eyes popped out. That just made her laugh more. 

Melfina breathed in the smell of her late night creation, with the smoky wisps of steam caressing her skin as it rose to the ceiling, and lifted the bowl of hot soup carefully down the dark hall. Her liquid brown eyes looked up from the nearly overflowing, cracker-saturated tomato soup, to the bedroom door, and she gently kicked the door instead of knocking. "Jim, I got the soup ready!" she said softly, but with a glowing pride. "Just the way he asked for it!"   
The door slowly slid open, to reveal a dark room with a fake campfire of flashlights wrapped up in a gray blanket to light it. Jim stood before her, smiling back, and he said softly, "Smells great Melfina."   
"Thanks a lot," the teenager whispered back, nodding, as she stepped into Aisha's bedroom. Melfina looked around their strange gathering, around a pretend campfire. A gentle glow came to her face, and her lips tilted up with a strange, heartfelt simplicity.   
"I'm sure he'd love it, Mel," Jim said, walking into the dark room after her. He shut the door behind himself, letting the place seep with its blackness again, and gently stopped her by taking a hold of her arm. "But he can't."   
Surprised and not understanding, she paused and twisted around, cradling the bowl in towel as not to burn her hands. Melfina blinked her bright brown eyes in curiosity, and possible hurt was knocking at the back of her mind. He'd never turned down her cooking before, or any food for that matter. What could be wrong? "Why not?" was the reply, as Jim sighed and gave a smile, with an untamable tilt of his lips, and turned her back around gently.   
"Because he's sleeping." Jim pointed past the artificial fire of flashlights, to a lump on the floor. Aisha sat beside it, perking up her long whiskers and curiously flicking her ears, watching it sleep. Gene lay on his side, with the sheet from Aisha's bed curled over his shoulder and the rest of the fabric balled up for a pillow. It only covered his torso, leaving his legs uncovered. His bare feet poked past the end of his long jeans, slightly moving as he slept to keep themselves warm with each other. Certain innocence had surfaced in him, as she gazed at his handsome face still and messy with uncombed red hair, with his mug of hot cocoa drank and empty in his limp fingers. Melfina smiled, set the bowl next to him, and found a spot around the 'fire' beside him.   
She cautiously picked up her mug of cocoa, which she had left to cool as she went to make the exhausted Gene some soup, and began to silently sip on it. After such a… surprise at their reunion, the fall had rattled up a burn in his chest, where the ribs had broken, and it had tired him out for the entire day. A soft smile came to her face again, as Melfina breathed on the cocoa and remembered Gene trying to 'hitch a ride' by grabbing someone's ankle and letting them pull him across the floor; it seemed everything that made him the joking, energetic, and wild outlaw had simply shut off with a click. He'd be out for a day.   
Melfina glanced up, as Aisha lazily played with her tail poking at the 'fire.' The bioandroid might not of understood emotions yet, but it felt good now, and she had tried to forget, and nearly succeeded to erase all memory of pain by now. Besides, no one really understands emotions anyway, she thought to herself. The teenager flickered her enchanting brown eyes from Gene, up to Jim, who was drinking his mug.   
"How was it at Suzuka's grave, Jim?" Melfina asked out of the blue, to spark a conversation. It was uneasy in silence for her; people would begin to think, and see her as an android, a machine, and it just unnerved her to be looked over like that. Not that the crew did. They were her only family to her.   
Jim put down his mug and said, "Fine. The flowers were beautiful, though." A tension over Gene somewhat murdering the reassuring and curious assassin seeped back into them, and Melfina was the first to break it again.   
"How did Gene survive?" she asked suddenly, feeling more a bit more comfortable falling into the topic. "I thought he had… died, like Suzuka. After all, the castor did get him and I didn't ever stop worrying… after I didn't find him at home. I was too depressed to ask, and afraid." Low glances brought her gaze back to him, and she tentatively brushed her fingers along his temples, with a glaze coming over her eyes in deep thought and emotions. "It was like being afraid of the dark, and when he got shot and fell like that, it was darker than ever before. As if somebody had turned off the light-" She pointed to her heart. "-in here. And now, somebody reached out and turned on the light. I guess I just want to know how he lived, that's all."   
A silence fell over them. Aisha's tail froze and she blinked heavily, realizing what had just happened. Melfina had just confessed. The Ctarl-Ctarl glanced nervously around the room, sweat-dropped, and gathered up the quilt around her and scampered over to the door, opening it. "Oops! My tuna's burning! Make sure the ship doesn't burn down from the campfire, Jim!" she chattered quickly, and then darting down the hall with her tail wrapped around her mug.   
"Aisha…" Jim growled, rolling his marble blue eyes as well. "Oh well. Never mind her. She's still sore that Gene whipped her."   
Melfina just stared. "Heh…" She sipped her cocoa, in disbelief.   
"I tell you later," he said, brushing the hair from his eyes while leaning back against the bed. Jim sipped from his mug again then set in his lap and looked down to his sleeping Aniki. "Well, I guess the only thing to explain it is that it was really himself who saved his life. If his future self hadn't given him just the right amount of mind poison, Gene would have been doomed.   
"You see, we've been kinda keeping him being alive a secret from you Mel, because at first we weren't sure that he would make it. In the hospital, it was just a big mess. He had uncountable fractures and broken ribs, both hamstrings pulled and worn down, he had a bit of a concussion, way too much lost blood, and who knows what else. Aisha and I weren't sure if he was going to live, and we didn't want you to get false hopes. But once we saw he was fine, we decided to make it a surprise."   
The deep brown eyes of Melfina misted up and she held the cup close to her face, feeling an icy shock trickle down her spine. She flickered her gaze back to Gene, and sighed, hearing Jim fade off from the conversation. The bioandroid looked back to Jim, and said encouragingly, "Go on."   
"In the poison, there was also a strong dose of something like an advanced form of steroids. That's why Gene could actually beat Sukuza and Aisha. The doctors said it was the only reason he lived. If there had been too much of it, he would have overworked himself and had a heart attack. The steroids barely kept him alive, and now they're testing it to see if Gene's going to have any side affects from it. Hopefully not, though… otherwise…"   
"Otherwise what?" Melfina's throat tightened around her words, choking them and making them come out choppy and hesitant. She widened her large brown eyes, as if doing so would let her see right into his thoughts and pull it out quick.   
"Otherwise," Jim said nervously, "he might lose his mind, go into a coma, or just up and… die one day. The doctors said it really screwed up his nerves, and he supposed to be off drinking permanently." A soft smile came to his face, with a wryly tilt to it. "Which is going to Mission Impossible 3 for Aniki." The blonde paused, looking up from his sad-eyed gaze down at his half-empty cup of steaming cocoa, and turned his attention to Melfina. "Hey, Mel, you okay?"   
The black-haired teenager only mutely nodded, collecting up her and Gene's empty mugs, and stood up, dusting herself off. In a soft, passive tone, she replied, "Everything's fine Jim. I promise. I'm really fine, but I think I'll be going to bed now." As her thin frame paused in the doorway, she glanced down at her beloved outlaw, her space cowboy, and held her tongue from talking anymore. Melfina smiled as Jim bid her goodnight, shutting the door behind her.   
Jim Hawking yawned, blinking his marble blue eyes sleepily, and let his gaze fall back onto Gene. A smirk crawled up his face, and the kid outlaw crawled over to the bowl of tomato soup before his Aniki. He stirred his fingers quietly through it, paused to flicker a nervous glance up at the stirring Gene, and quickly took a cracker from the thick red soup and stuffed it in his mouth. Impishness was written like a grin across his face as Jim stood up, after quickly grabbing another one.   
"'Night," Jim said absently, walking out of the room and closing the door to leave Aniki to sleep.   
In the hushed darkness of Aisha's abandoned room, it took a few moments for any movement to originate. Dark with conflicting emotions, Gene lifted his heavy eyelids to scan the dark. The light from the flashlights had dimmed from use, and he drowsily clicked them off, and was enveloped in pitch-blackness. The outlaw blinked the sleep from his steely blue eyes, cautiously drawing himself to sit up. Instantly, the same stubborn ache flared up deep in his chest, and a flinch whipped through him.   
Gene ignored the pain and his emotional blue eyes fell dully to the ground, staring endlessly off into the blackness. But his mind was more than lit with thoughts, and, as his dark eyes adjusted to the night, he noticed the steamy bowl of soup before him. He blinked, remembering asking for it from Melfina, and how she'd willingly accepted every request from him. Guilt. That's what it felt like.   
The outlaw snorted in disgust to and at himself. "I break her heart, kill her friend, and drag her into the lair of her enemies just for the treasure she can unlock… and she still makes soup for me," he said faintly to himself. Gene smiled beneath his disheveled red hair and took the warm bowl, quickly downing it with only a few swallows. He glanced out at the door, wiping the soup from his lips, and tilted them thoughtfully.   
'Maybe if…'   


Morning melded with the violin-adorned country song in her ears once light glowed bright enough to stir her from dreams. Melfina sleepily drove the sleep from her dream-saturated thoughts; as the sweet drone of lyrics seemed to nudge her awake with each new word. Slowly, she eased her eyes into opening, blinking as the surprisingly bright light of morning flooded color into her world. She yawned lazily, allowing herself to stretch, before she sat up and rubbed her eyes.   
"'Morning, Mel."   
Melfina cleared her deep brown eyes to see a pastel-painted dawn spreading out in a stunning display across the rolling wheat fields of gold. Against the raspberry red sun, wisps of dark, blue-tinted clouds blocked some of it out. She turned, in the bright morning, to cast her eyes over to the redhead driving an equally red Ehefrau.   
"Gene?" Shock wavered like a studder through her speech. Melfina glanced around at the unfamiliar surroundings. "Where are we going? And why?" The bioandroid gently brushed some unruly black hair down and her liquid brown eyes found themselves involving the contents of the backseat, seeing it fill with the smell of food. She slid her body over the seat, lifting up a traditional red and white picnic blanket, and gasped in surprise. Homemade food was staring her in the face, piles upon piles, along with a lavish, beanbag pillow.   
Melfina locked gazes with Gene, as her lips formed, "Did you-"   
"Yep," he replied nonchalantly, with the brilliant red locks of hair whipping in the wind. A smile lit up in his dark sapphire blue eyes, along his face as well, as he slowed the aging car to a hover that barely stirred the dirt, and turned it down a neglected country road. On the radio, a song belted out a message she could relate to. The soulful voices sang of a girl dreaming of a day alone with her cowboy. Melfina smiled secretively.   
"How long have you been cooking this, Gene? I never knew you could. It must have taken… hours!" Melfina whispered in amazement, large brown eyes meeting his youthful blue ones.   
"Well, after I heard you… talking to Jim last night," he hesitantly started, flickering a nervous pair of eyes out to the lush nature. "I felt guilty that I actually killed Suzuka, and of being cold to you sometimes. I felt even worse, when I heard about you being so worried. I thought you would like a day off from all this hassle, just you and me. Listen Melfina, I promise I'd take care of you, and I have, but I haven't been thinking of what you might want, not need."   
Melfina glanced around once again, trying desperately to contain her emotions. Tears threatened to roll down her face, but before she could decide that it wouldn't so bad, they were already rolling down. Bliss lit up brightly in her eyes, and the fear of rejection was forgotten. There was no need to say it, when it had been said indirectly.   
Gene Starwind slammed down on the breaks, coming to the end of the rolling gold wheat fields. He turned to Melfina, guiding a genuine grin to her, and then went instantly blank with fear, noticing the salty tears streaming down her face in a golden light. "Mel? What's wrong?" Instantly, his handsome face, lit by the pastel colors, turned to hers and Gene put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.   
Her eyes fell across the quiet, golden-lit stream in the wildflower-lined below them, over to him, then up to the pale blue eyes overhead. Tears glistened on her face, as the lyrics on the radio sang to her.   
'Oh it sounds good to me   
I said   
Cowboy take me away…'   
"No," Melfina said softly, brown eye flooding with tears. "Nothing's wrong. Everything is perfect."   


End (The real one!)   


***************   
Author's Notes:   
Well, that's it folks. I want to thank everybody who reviewed, or even took the time to read. Now I have a bit more time for The Dragon's Cosmic Breath, Starwind and Hawking, and Sword. I'll also be starting a Gundam Wing fic for Heero called Jaded. It's about him crashing to a little inhabited planet and finding a girl who takes care of him and his Gundam, and helps him find humanity. Anyway, please read and review! Tuson tucks everybody! 

Chustang   



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